AFP, Riyadh :
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Saud al-Faisal, formerly the world’s longest-serving foreign minister who oversaw four decades of turbulent diplomacy for the oil-rich kingdom, has died.
A statement from the Royal Court said Prince Saud, who was born in 1940, died in the United States without giving the cause of death.
Funeral prayers will be held on Saturday night in the Muslim holy city of Mecca for Prince Saud, who was one of the highest profile members of the kingdom’s ruling elite before stepping down in April for health reasons.
He oversaw Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a major diplomatic player, facing successive regional crises and maintaining a focus on relations with the West.
“May God accept him in paradise,” one of his nephews, Saud Mohammed al-Abdullah al-Faisal, wrote on Twitter.
Tributes poured in for the prince after news of his death emerged, with the Royal Court describing him as a “symbol of honesty and hard work”.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Saud al-Faisal, formerly the world’s longest-serving foreign minister who oversaw four decades of turbulent diplomacy for the oil-rich kingdom, has died.
A statement from the Royal Court said Prince Saud, who was born in 1940, died in the United States without giving the cause of death.
Funeral prayers will be held on Saturday night in the Muslim holy city of Mecca for Prince Saud, who was one of the highest profile members of the kingdom’s ruling elite before stepping down in April for health reasons.
He oversaw Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a major diplomatic player, facing successive regional crises and maintaining a focus on relations with the West.
“May God accept him in paradise,” one of his nephews, Saud Mohammed al-Abdullah al-Faisal, wrote on Twitter.
Tributes poured in for the prince after news of his death emerged, with the Royal Court describing him as a “symbol of honesty and hard work”.
