DUBAI, December 16. /TASS/. Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah has died at the age of 86, Kuwait’s state-run television reported.

The broadcaster broke into programming with Quranic verses before an official announcement was made, a move that often signifies the death of a member of the Gulf Arab state’s royal family.

On November 29, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah al-Sabah, the minister of state for cabinet affairs, said that the monarch had been hospitalized.