Qatar Talks Leadership Transfer

Rare, as most leaders there serve until death

Qatar's ruler said Monday he plans to transfer power to the Gulf nation's 33-year-old crown prince, a report said, in what would mark a rare transition of authority in a region where most leaders remain until death.

The report by Qatar-based Al Jazeera gave no other details about the transition, but the network was founded by Qatar's government and closely reflects its views on internal issues.

Such a transfer would become the first major shift of rule among the Western-allied Gulf Arab states since a contentious transition in Kuwait in early 2006. It also would signal the sudden rise of a new generation at the helm of one of the region's wealthiest and politically ambitious countries, whose international profile has risen sharply since the Arab Spring as a key sponsor of rebel forces in Libya and Syria.