SABAH, SHEIKH JABIR AL-AHMAD AL-JABIR AS-

born June 29, 1926, Kuwait City, Kuwait member of the ruling Sabah family of Kuwait who became emir in 1977. Sheikh Jabir was the third son of Sheikh Ahmad al-Jabir as-Sabah, who ruled Kuwait from 1921 to 1950. Beginning in the late 1940s he held a number of important public positions, including ministries in the government overseeing financial and economic affairs. When Iraq claimed sovereignty over newly independent Kuwait in 1961, he led a delegation to the Arab League to negotiate a settlement. He became prime minister in November 1965, and the following year he was formally designated crown prince and heir apparent to his cousin Emir Sheikh Sabah as-Salim as-Sabah. By the early 1970s the emir, suffering from poor health, had handed over most of the government operations to Sheikh Jabir, and upon Sheikh Sabah's death, on December 31, 1977, Sheikh Jabir became emir. Early in his rule Sheikh Jabir stressed unity among Arab nations, but he soon found his policies caught in the cross fire of the Iran-Iraq War. He was also forced to deal with internal dissent, particularly from Kuwait's Shi'ite minority, and with opposition from the National Assembly (parliament). In 1986 he dissolved the parliament and imposed press censorship, which led to periodic protests against the economic and political power of the Sabah family. When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Sheikh Jabir escaped to Saudi Arabia, where he lived in exile until his return in March 1991. Pressure for reform continued, and in elections held in October 1992 opponents won a majority of seats in the National Assembly. In elections in 1996, however, progovernment forces gained some of the ground they had lost, but in May 1999 Sheikh Jabir once again dissolved the parliament. Although antigovernment sentiment was high in the new parliament, elected in July, the opposition was divided and Sheikh Jabir retained his authority.