New Oman ruler congratulated by family, officials

Oman's new ruler was congratulated by family members and top security officials on Saturday after being named successor to Sultan Qaboos, the Middle East's longest-ruling monarch whose death was announced earlier in the day.

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said has vowed to uphold his predecessor's foreign policy approach, which steered the country through Persian Gulf tensions by balancing close relations with both the US and Iran.

The 66-year-old, who was the culture minister, is the latest in a long line of Al Saids, who have ruled Oman since the eighteenth century, and once ruled over Zanzibar too, off the coast of Tanzania.