Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman: 1940-2020
Omanโs Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has died aged 79, lived to be the Middle Eastโs longest-ruling monarch after seizing power in a 1970 palace coup and pulled his Arabian sultanate into modernity while balancing diplomatic ties between adversariesย Iranย and the US.
The sultan was previously diagnosed with colon cancer. He was believed to have been in poor health in recent months and travelled to Belgium for a medical checkup in December.
