US President Joe Biden’s advanced age and its apparent effect on him have raised eyebrows on the presidential election campaign trail, after several recent incidents in which he got names and details wrong in front of the world’s cameras.
Biden turns 82 on 20 November 2024, just two weeks after US voters go to the polls to choose between him and ex-president Donald Trump. By the end of any second term, Biden would be the oldest president in American history.
Ronald Reagan was considered by many to be too old for office by the time he left the White House in 1989, yet he was just 77, younger than Donald Trump is today.
Since assuming office in January 2021, Biden has stuttered, mumbled incomprehensibly, extended handshakes to people who are not there, and most recently, mistaken Ukraine’s president for Russia’s. Donald Trump appears to know that Biden’s decline is setting him up for a second term.
Biden has seen a neurologist on frequent occasions since coming to power, but the White House has denied any signs of a chronic illness such as Parkinson’s disease.
Biden is not the world’s oldest head of state. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is 85. Pope Francis is 87. Paul Biya, the president of Cameroon, is 91.
Other leaders are much younger. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is 35, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is 36, while Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traore is 37.
Octogenarian presidents who refuse to let go may be new to the United States, but they have been a familiar feature of the Middle East for years. Many came to office young, sometimes by vote but often by gun, before growing ensconced.
So comfortable did they get that many changed their country’s constitutions to allow them to stay in power. When they are finally removed, very few go willingly. Here, we take a look at some of the region’s more senior statesmen.
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Hashem al-Atasi, Syria (1873-1960):
A three-time Syrian head of state, he was in his 40s by the end of World War I, and was first elected president in 1936, after he had turned 60. He was president from 1936-39, then again from 1949-51, and finally, from 1954-55, his third stint completed in his 80s.
Known as a tough leader, who confronted ambitious Syrian officers, he seldom sought hospital treatment, refrained from smoking and drinking, enjoyed long walks in nature, and did not travel.
Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia (1903-2000):
A legendary statesman who led his country to independence from France, Bourguiba became first president of Tunisia in 1957 and remained so for three decades until 1987, when his prime minister was forced to initiate a medical coup against him.
Born in 1903, Bourguiba’s health had begun to deteriorate in the late 1970s, with his behaviour becoming erratic and paranoid.
Some things could be put down to old age, such as him forgetting events, names and faces (including of his ministers), and laws that he had just introduced, or falling asleep while receiving foreign dignitaries.
Other behaviour included him firing senior people—including a minister, the head of a major newspaper, and the head of a UN mission—just hours after their appointment, or demanding the retrial and public execution of those already convicted.
In 1987, at the age of 84, seven doctors reported that he was no longer capable of taking state decisions. Citing Article 57 of Tunisia’s constitution, Prime Minister Zine El-Abidin Ben Ali removed Bourguiba from office on 7 November 1987.
Husni Mubarak, Egypt (1928-2020):
Famously overthrown by the January Revolution of 2011, Hosni Mubarak was an old man of 83 by the time he left office.
The fourth president of Egypt stepped down begrudgingly. He had planned to nominate himself for a sixth presidential term, having been in power since 1981.
Six months before his three-decade reign ended, rumours spread that he had cancer. This was denied, but several months after his presidency ended, his lawyers confirmed the diagnosis.
Like so many others, Mubarak had infuriated the public by giving powers to his wife and grooming his son to succeed him. There were 17 million Egyptians aged 10-19 by 2011 and Mubarak was seen as too old to lead a vibrant and young population.
He was also by far the oldest Egyptian president. Gamal Abdul Nasser was 52 when he died in 1970, Mohammad Neguib was 53 when forced out of office in 1954, while Anwar al-Sadat was 63 when he was assassinated in 1981.
Michel Aoun, Lebanon (b. 1933):
The former army commander Michel Aoun was 83 when he became president in October 2016 and 89 when his presidency ended in 2022.
Although Aoun’s health has been shrouded in secrecy, he reportedly suffered a stroke in 2013, then fell in front of the world’s cameras at an Arab summit in Jordan in 2017. In speeches, he was heard getting words mixed up.
By the end of his term, Aoun had reportedly restricted his schedule to just a few working hours per day, delegating most duties to his son-in-law and heir, Gibran Bassil.
Abdulaziz Bouteflika, Algeria (1937-2021):
Bouteflika was a highly intelligent man when he became president of Algeria at the age of 62 in April 1999, but his health began to fail him, and he checked into a hospital in France for three weeks in November 2005.
In 2008, diplomatic cables revealed that he, like Mubarak, was suffering from stomach cancer. In April 2013, in his mid-70s, Bouteflika suffered a stroke, and was barely seen in public since. A journalist who reported that the president was “comatose” was vigorously pursued by the country’s censors.
His last public address was in 2014. His younger brother, Said, was widely known to be running the country. In 2019, unseen for five years, the 82-year-old Bouteflika—in a wheelchair, unable to walk or talk—sought re-election. Nationwide protests led to his resignation, and he died two years later.
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestine (b. 1935):
The oldest of Arab presidents today, Mahmoud Abbas is 89. Elected after Yasser Arafat’s death in May 2005, he remains sharp, articulate, and active. A long-term smoker, he is an avid reader, he is still travels, including to Arab Summits.
Last September, he gave a fiery speech at the United Nations in New York, lashing out at Israel two weeks before Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza.
Yet it is almost two decades since the last Palestinian election and Abbas, who is regularly admitted to hospital, has not appointed a successor. The continuing Fatah-Hamas rift in Palestinian politics makes elections virtually impossible.
Beji Caid Essebsi, Tunisia (1926-2019):
Tunisia has certainly contributed to the elderly Arab leaders club, and Beji Caid Essebsi, who was born in 1926, became the country’s fifth president in 2014, aged 88.
A former foreign minister under Bourguiba and interim prime minister in the immediate aftermath of President Ben Ali’s 2011 resignation, he is credited with leading the democratic transition in Tunisia.
Despite his advanced age, Essebsi carried out his duties with the spirit of a younger man but chose not to seek re-election in 2019 and died in office shortly before his term was due to end, at the ripe old age of 93.
