As Kuwaitis gathered on Thursday to commemorate the life of the late emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, who died on Sunday after ruling the oil-rich sheikhdom for 27 years, questions over his succession began to loom.

The 78-year-old Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah was, as crown prince, automatically named emir. But a public debate on whether he will be able to pronounce a two-line oath of office in parliament has underlined the extent to which he is incapacitated by ill health.