DOHA: Qatar’s former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, a sweeping moderniser who seized power in 1995 and broke with tradition to hand it over to his son 18 years later, has died at the age of 74.

Sheikh Hamad was the architect of Qatar’s effort to develop its liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure that allowed it to get its vast gas reserves to global markets, turning the state into one of the world’s largest exporters and laying the foundations for its vast wealth. He established media network Al Jazeera, which gave Qatar an outsized voice in Arab politics and projected its influence far beyond the Gulf.

He also oversaw the successful bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, a move that firmly put Qatar on the global stage and accelerated a decade of infrastructure building that remade the capital Doha.

His foreign policy carved out a role for Qatar as a mediator, brokering talks in conflicts from Lebanon to Yemen and Darfur while maintaining ties with the United States — hosting US Central Command — as well as Iran and groups aligned with it. That balancing act laid the groundwork for Qatar’s current role in negotiations between the United States and Iran, and in its years-long efforts to halt the war in Gaza. Reuters