Haitham bin Tariq attended Pembroke College, University of Oxford, graduating from the Foreign Service Programme in 1979. Haitham's father was Tariq bin Taimur, son of Sultan Taimur bin Feisal. He has six brothers and two sisters. His half-brother Asa'ad bin Tariq is the deputy prime minister for relations and international cooperation affairs, and his full brother Shihab is the deputy prime minister for defense affairs. His other brothers, Talal, Qais, Adham and Faris are businessmen and are not involved in politics. He is described as "outward-looking and Western-oriented".
Political career
A sports enthusiast, he served as the first head of the Oman Football Association in the early 1980s. He served as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Political Affairs from 1986 to 1994, and was later appointed as the Secretary General for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was later appointed as the Minister of Heritage and Culture in March 2002 and later chaired the national census committee in 2003. He usually represented Oman abroad in a diplomatic capacity; in 2016, he personally welcomed Prince Charles and Camilla on a visit to the country. He is also chairman of the committee for the future vision of "Oman 2040″ along with being honorary president of the Oman Association for the Disabled.
Sultan of Oman
After the death of his first cousinSultan Qaboos on 10 January 2020, Haitham bin Tariq was named by the royal family and Qaboos's will as Sultan of Oman the next day and took an oath before an emergency session of the Council of Oman in Al-Bustan. Oman state TV said the former sultan's letter was opened by the Defence Council and his identity was announced shortly thereafter. As sultan, he also holds the positions of prime minister, supreme commander of the armed forces, minister of defence, minister of finance, and minister of foreign affairs. In his first public speech, he promised to uphold his predecessor's peace-making foreign policy and to further develop Oman's economy. Haitham bin Tariq is married and, unlike his predecessor, also has children, two sons and two daughters.
