Gulf Arab state Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said has died and a three-day period of national mourning has been declared, state media says.
Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has died aged 79, transformed Oman during his 49-year reign from a poverty-stricken country torn by dissent into a prosperous state and an internationally trusted mediator for some of the region's thorniest issues.
Oman state news agency ONA said Qaboos died after"a wise and triumphant march rich with generosity that embraced Oman and extended to the Arab, Muslim and entire world and achieved a balanced policy that the whole world respected". "The appointment and blessing of a successor by the sultan while alive would have been a huge service to Oman," said one diplomat in the region.
Qaboos healed old rifts in a country long divided between a conservative tribal interior and seafaring coastal region. He became known to his countrymen as"the renaissance", investing billions of dollars of oil revenues in infrastructure and building one of the best-trained armed forces in the region.While brooking no dissent at home, he charted an independent foreign policy, not taking sides in a power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, or in a Gulf dispute with Qatar.
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