Saudi Crown Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz passes away

JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz, deputy premier and minister of interior, passed away yesterday. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz announced the death of his brother Prince Naif outside the Kingdom. He was 78. The crown prince was recently abroad for medical treatment.

Funeral prayers for Prince Naif will be performed at the Al Masjid al Haram Mosque in Mecca after Maghreb (sunset) prayers today, the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting a Royal Court statement. Prince Naif was appointed crown prince and deputy premier on October 27 last year, succeeding the late Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz following his death on October 22, 2011.

Born in Taif in 1934, Prince Naif has been involved in Saudi Arabian political life for nearly six decades. He held a number of important posts throughout his career. He was chosen as governor of Riyadh in 1953. He was appointed deputy interior minister in 1970, before being appointed interior minister in 1975. It is in this latter role for which Prince Naif is most well-known. He was named second deputy premier in 2009.

Prince Naif has been hugely successful in combating terrorism in Saudi Arabia, and Al Qaeda in particular, forcing the organisation to practically flee the country for. The attacks that occurred in Saudi Arabia in 2003 represent perhaps the sternest test faced by Prince Naif. However his calm and collected handling of this crisis, and the subsequent successes he achieved in combating Al Qaeda, is something that everybody can clearly recall. Prince Naif’s successful tactics and methods of combating terrorism in the Kingdom are today held up as an example by the international community.
He targeted terrorism financing in particular, whilst also attempting to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia. The “Munasaha” rehabilitation programme attempts to rehabilitate the extremist ideology and beliefs of those found guilty of terrorism-related offenses. This programme has brought to him international accolades. Prince Naif’s tactics in the “war on terror” have led political leaders and security experts to call on intelligence and security agencies around the world to benefit from the Saudi counter-terrorism experience
Prince Naif has been successful in protecting and maintaining the security and stability of Saudi Arabia, and surmounting numerous crises. For more than three decades, he protected Saudi Arabia’s national security, and stood against all those who have attempted to destabilise the Kingdom. Prince Naif is also known for his philanthropic and charitable work, and he played a prominent role in supervising relief operations for the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples.
He played an important role in leading the Kingdom’s efforts and programmes to provide aid and relief to people affected by war or natural disaster across the globe. Prince Naif’s commitment to education is also well-known. He has pursued a policy of providing special training and education programmes to the interior ministry staff. He also founded the Naif Arab University of Security Sciences, which specialises in security related studies.
Prince Naif is known as a straight-talking and wise government official, and he has a particularly strong relationship with the media. He was one of the longest serving Arab interior ministers, and has strong diplomatic relations with Arab and international officials and world leaders. At the time of death, he was honorary president of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers.
Prince Naif also held a number of other important posts in Saudi Arabia, including chairman of the Executive Council of Civil Defence, chairman of the Human Resources Development Fund, chairman of the Executive Commission for Industrial Security, and chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee. Prince Nayef returned in April after spending a month abroad following medical tests in Cleveland, in the United States. The nature of the tests has not been revealed.
After the death of the kingdom’s founder, Abdulaziz ibn Saud, power has been passed down between some of his nearly 40 sons who lived to adulthood. King Abdullah, who is nearly 90, had a back operation last year. He is the fifth of Ibn Saud’s sons to become king and nearly 20 remain alive, although only a few of these are thought likely candidates to rule the US ally. Although Nayef has a reputation as a conservative who is averse to the cautious social changes being pushed by his elder brother, analysts have speculated he might prove less resistant to reform as king.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz al Saud had been an active diplomat who received a number of visitors at his home, Saudi Press Agency reported, after recently returning from medical tests overseas. Among the visitors were Minister of Labour Engineer Adel bin Mohammed Faqih and Governor of the Northern Border region Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Musaed.
Others included ambassadors, the deputy minister of labour, a representative of the Kingdom to the World Trade Organisation, the Saudi Consul-General in Geneva and a group of citizens. State TV said Nayef had died in Geneva where he had been receiving medical treatment for an unknown problem — he was thought to be 78. His death was not expected to trigger any major changes to the kingdom’s energy policy or to key relationships with the United States and other allies.
“The fundamental principle that the Saudis operate under is stability. So they will I’m sure develop a consensus among the senior members of the family over an orderly succession. That has likely been forming in recent months in any event,” said Robert Jordan, US ambassador to Riyadh from 2001-03. Defence Minister Prince Salman, 76, has long been viewed as the next most senior prince after the late Nayef. If he became king, analysts believe he would continue King Abdullah’s cautious reforms.
Nayef had a reputation as a steely conservative who developed a formidable security infrastructure that crushed Al Qaeda but also locked up some political activists. Like his brothers King Abdullah and Salman, he was one of the nearly 40 sons of Saudi Arabia’s founder, Abdulaziz bin Saud, who established the kingdom in 1935. Prince Salman, his likely successor, was made defence minister in November and had served as Riyadh governor for five decades.

While Salman has often met foreign diplomats and other officials, he is seen as something of an unknown quantity, having maintained strong relations with both conservatives and western-oriented businessmen. King Abdullah in May hosted a summit for Gulf Arab leaders and has looked well, if tired, in recent television appearances, but in October had his third round of back surgery in 12 months. The kingdom emerged from last year’s Arab uprisings as one of the most stable Middle Eastern states.

Although most Saudi watchers say it is very likely that Salman will become the kingdom’s leader after the deaths of Abdullah and Nayef, they say it is uncertain who would then be seen as next in line. Although nearly 20 of King Abdulaziz’s sons still survive, few of them have the requisite government experience to lead the country. Meanwhile, those that have served for a long time in important positions, such as Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmed or Intelligence Minister Prince Muqrin, are younger than the oldest of King Abdulaziz’s grandsons.

Mecca Governor Prince Khaled al Faisal, a son of the late King Faisal and brother to Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal, is seen as one possible contender among the next generation. Another is Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Eastern Province Governor Prince Mohammed bin Fahd. Under succession rules drawn up six years ago, a new king has to nominate his choice of crown prince for approval by a family “allegiance” council.

Although the council was involved in the appointment of Nayef as crown prince in October, it is not clear whether it voted on Abdullah’s choice or was simply informed of it. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz al Saud, next in line to rule the kingdom, died just eight months after becoming heir to 89-year-old King Abdullah, the royal court said yesterday. “With deep sorrow and grief... King Abdullah mourns his brother... Crown Prince Nayef who passed to the mercy of God yesterday outside the kingdom,” said a royal court statement carried by state media.

State TV said Nayef had died in Geneva where he had been receiving medical treatment for an unknown problem — he was thought to be 78. Nayef, interior minister since 1975, was appointed crown prince in October after the death of his elder brother and the previous heir Crown Prince Sultan. State television said the burial would be in Mecca today. In a statement, British Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed his government’s condolences, Haque said he was sad to hear of Nayef’s death, adding, “He served the Kingdom for many years with great dignity and dedication and his contribution to the prosperity and security of the Kingdom will be long remembered,” said Hague.

The king of Bahrain ordered a three-day mourning period, Bahrain News Agency said. “He supervised the security affairs of the state for more than 30 years. He scored a lot of successes there. Especially in fighting Al Qaeda,” said Khalid al Dakhil, a Saudi political analyst. In May, Nayef went to Switzerland for medical tests, his second trip abroad for check ups for an undisclosed health issue since March. Crown Prince Nayef built the formidable security force which crushed an Al Qaeda revolt in Saudi Arabia.

Nayef was born in around 1933 in Taif, the mountain town where the royal court would annually retreat to each year from the stifling summer heat of the desert capital Riyadh and the Red Sea port of Jeddah, the kingdom’s second city. Nayef’s father King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, over the course of the preceding 30 years of warfare and diplomacy, had united the Bedouin tribes behind his vision of a pure Islamic state.

He conquered much of the Arabian peninsula, securing his family’s control over Islam’s holiest sites at Mecca and Medina. Growing up in the royal court of the 1930s and 1940s, Nayef is of the last generation of Saudi leaders who knew the austere kingdom. Nayef’s own son Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a well regarded deputy interior minister in the current administration, headed Saudi efforts to root Al Qaeda from the kingdom. Named governor of Riyadh aged only 20, Nayef impressed his father and went on to become interior minister in 1975.

It was this ministerial role that came to define Nayef by giving him the sole responsibility for protecting the kingdom from internal threats — most frequently from activists. As the man to whom regional governors reported, Nayef personally handled the petitions of individual Saudi citizens on a daily basis, cultivating a network of supporters across a kingdom where tribal and regional ties still matter. — Reuters