Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister arrives in South Korea for a gathering of global leaders, November 10, 2010. Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters/Corbis
August 21, 2015
My first encounter with Prince Saud Al-Faisal,
who passed away in Ramadan this year, occurred forty years ago. Newly appointed
as Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister after the assassination of his father, King
Faisal, he came to visit my father, Ismail Fahmy, who was Egypt’s foreign minister
at the time, at our beach house in Alexandria. Decades later when I served as
foreign minister myself, it was moving to hear the prince state publicly, with
obvious emotion, that he was proud to have worked with father and son. In every
encounter we had as the foreign ministers of our respective countries, he broke
protocol and precedent to be especially courteous and cordial.
My admiration for Prince Saud went
beyond his refined civility. He showed steely backbone in standing firm against
policies he objected to. He took a results-oriented approach to diplomacy, and
came up with creative new ideas, pushing boundaries on intractable issues. He
astutely agreed to proposals when less-than-ideal options were on the table. He
showed great wisdom and professionalism in dealing with pressing issues without
losing sight of the big picture or strategic objectives.
Many will remember Prince Saud’s strong
positions and sustained efforts in support of Egypt after the June 30, 2013
revolution—emulating the support King Faisal gave to Egypt with the oil embargo
after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. He was instrumental in negotiating the 1989
Taif Agreement, which ended fourteen years of civil war in Lebanon. Also to his
credit was the Saudi peace initiative adopted by the Arab Summit in Beirut in
2002 as the Arab Peace Plan.
Prince Saud often asked Egypt to pursue
its proposal for a WMD-free Middle East, and despite American double standards
on the issue urged us (unsuccessfully) against boycotting talks on the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 2013, Saudi Arabia stunned the diplomatic
community by refusing to accept a seat on the ten-member United Nations
Security Council because of its ineffectiveness and the double standards of its
members. Prince Saud listened patiently and seriously to my ultimately
unsuccessful arguments to convince Saudi Arabia to reverse its decision.
Prince Saud’s wisdom was evident in our
handling of the Arab position on President Obama’s aborted endeavor to bomb
Syria in 2013. On this tactical step Saudi Arabia and a number of Arab countries
supported using force. Egypt and others did not. I had a meeting with Prince
Saud, where it was evident that our positions were close on everything but the
bombing. In our discussions I
also emphasized to everyone's astonishment that Obama would ultimately not bomb
Syria. We drafted mutually agreed language that put the
responsibility clearly and forcefully on the Syrian regime, but stayed short of
paving the way for the United States to bomb Syria under the guise of an Arab
League resolution a la Libya. For
many months afterward Prince Saud would joke with me about my correct reading
of American politicians.
Such tactical disagreements never affected
relations between our two countries or their officials. In fact, they were
catalysts to numerous phone calls and consultations between us on a wide range
of things concerning our respective national developments and the ever-turbulent
Middle East, with a view to building a better future for the region. Prince
Saud Al-Faisal was a statesman diplomat and he will be missed.
Nabil Fahmy, a former foreign minister of Egypt, is dean of
the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in
Cairo.