One week after visiting Princeton, Saudi envoy resigns his post

Just four days after giving a speech at the University, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, abruptly resigned, prompting uncertainty about the future of U.S.-Saudi relations.

Washington onlookers have speculated that Turki is jockeying to replace his brother, Prince Saud al-Faisal '64, who is reported to be in failing health, as the Kingdom's foreign minister.

Saud, an economics major at Princeton and former member of the Ivy Club, is known for having counseled against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 because the United States would be "solving one problem and creating five more," according to media reports.

"I thought it was not going to work. I thought it was a matter of mathematics, for me at least," Saud told PBS' Frontline in December 2004. "Saddam Hussein had perhaps two million people keeping control of Iraq. The United States and its allies have close to 150,000 people. How do you make that work?"

Turki's bid to replace his elder brother as foreign minister is complicated by speculation that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Turki's predecessor as envoy to Washington and now the Saudi national security advisor, is also vying for the job.

In choosing Prince Saud's successor, however, observers have noted that King Abdullah, the reigning Saudi monarch, does not want to lose the support of the powerful Faisal brothers if he selects the rival Bandar over Turki.

Bandar is also a strong candidate for the job, having served for 22 years in Washington before returning to Saudi Arabia. He is legendary in the capitol for having established good relationships with key powerbrokers. He is a confidant of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and some observers have suggested that Bandar continues to exercise influence in the White House.

Turki is no stranger to controversy. He was sued by family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks over alleged ties to Osama bin Laden. Turki met with bin Laden several times during the 1980s as head of Saudi intelligence.

As Saudi ambassador, Turki has focused largely on the war in Iraq and the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. In an interview with The Daily Princetonian last Friday, he emphasized the need for a political solution in Iraq, citing Saudi efforts to bring peace to the region through bridging sectarian differences.

"We have been very active in trying to bring Sunni and [Shiite] together, and King Abdullah has met with all of the leading political officials in Iraq since Iraq established a government after the invasion," he said.

But Saudi cooperation has come with stipulations. King Abdullah told Cheney that if the United States were to pull out of Iraq precipitously, the Saudi government would give monetary support to the Sunnis if a conflict were to arise with the Shiites, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The Times story came less than a week after Turki fired one of his security advisers for hinting at a similar stance in a Washington Post editorial.

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Turki had only served in Washington for 15 months when he resigned, citing personal reasons, and returned to Saudi Arabia.

Similarly, in 2005, Bandar also cited "personal reasons" before abruptly resigning and returning to Saudi Arabia to serve as secretary general of the Kingdom's new national security council.

This article includes reporting by Princetonian staff writer Michael Scharff.