Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud

Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah bin Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (Arabic فيصل بن فرحان آل سعود, DMG Faiṣal b. Farḥān Āl Saʿūd; born 1 November 1974 in Frankfurt am Main) is a Saudi Arabian diplomat and politician and a member of the House of Saud. Prince Faisal has served as the current Saudi ambassador to Germany since 27 March 2019. He has also served as foreign minister of Saudi Arabia since 23 October 2019, when he was appointed to that position by a royal decree issued by King Salman.[1] Prince Faisal was born in Frankfurt, West Germany and spent a part of his childhood and young adulthood in that country, which is why he speaks fluent German according to German news media.[2]

Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in 2022
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
23 October 2019
MonarchSalman
Prime Minister
Preceded byIbrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf
Saudi Ambassador to Germany
In office
27 March 2019 – October 2019
MonarchSalman
Preceded byKhalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud
Succeeded byEssam Ibrahim Baitalmal
Personal details
Born (1974-11-01) 1 November 1974
Frankfurt, West Germany

Early life and political career

Prince Faisal is a member of the Saudi royal family. A son of Prince Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, he was born on 1 November 1974 in West Germany and was educated in the US.[3][4] He served as an adviser at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in the US from 2017 to 2019.[3]

Faisal has held senior positions in Saudi and international companies, primarily the aerospace and weapons sector. He was, until at least his appointment as ambassador to Germany, a director of the arms company Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI). He then worked for the Saudi ambassador to the United States.[5]

As an expert on the defense industry, he also chaired a US-Saudi joint venture with the aerospace company Boeing.[6] Prince Faisal also served as an adviser to the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia.[3][4]

Faisal meets with U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in February 2020.

In November 2017, Saudi Arabia withdrew its then ambassador to Germany, Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, in protest of a statement made by Sigmar Gabriel, the German Foreign Minister at that time. Gabriel had clearly criticized the active influence of the kingdom on the political-power constellation in Lebanon. After nearly a year of diplomatic crisis and vacancy of the ambassador position, Saudi Arabia sent its ambassador back to Berlin, but he was replaced by Faisal bin Farhan on 27 March 2019.[3] Saudi dissidents living in Germany were not pleased with the appointment of Faisal. The dissident Khalid bin Farhan al-Saud, a distant relative of the new ambassador, feared that the diplomat could also pressure opposition representatives. He told Deutsche Welle that he did not rule out that Faisal bin Farhan had been sent to Germany to persecute Saudi dissidents living in the country. Faisal has a good relationship with the kingdom's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.[7]

On 23 October 2019, he was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia.[1][8]

On 19 August 2020, Foreign Minister Faisal said the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates could be seen as positive, but Saudi Arabia would not normalize relations until peace is signed with the Palestinians, hopefully within the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative.[9]

Saudi Arabia is looking to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with rival Iran despite a “lack of substantive progress” in previous rounds, the kingdom’s foreign minister has said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, February 19 2022.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Saudi royal decree appoints Prince Faisal bin Farhan as new foreign minister". english.alarabiya.net. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  2. Krüger, Paul-Anton. "Saudi-Arabien: Faisal bin Farhan wird Außenminister". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  3. "Ambassadors in Germany". diplomatisches-magazin.de. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  4. "Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Germany presents his credentials". english.alarabiya.net. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  5. "H.H. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud". Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  6. "Young Saudi prince with Western experience named foreign minister". Reuters. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  7. "Diskussion um Riads neuen Botschafter". Deutsche Welle (in German). 12 February 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  8. "Vertretungen Saudi-Arabiens in Deutschland" (in German). Auswärtiges Amt. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  9. Jordans, Frank; Batrawy, Aya (19 August 2020). "Saudi Arabia Cautiously Welcomes UAE, Israel Normalization". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press.
  10. "Saudi Arabia plans for fresh round of talks with Iran: FM". Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera. News Agencies. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.