Oh, my friend of life. In geology, it takes several million years for desert sand to become stone. You, Prince Saud Al Faisal, have indelibly inscribed your legacy and character in the rocks of Arabia in just over 40 years of service as foreign minister of Saudi Arabia.
Your strong heart, your emphatic intelligence and your poignant humility have left a permanent mark not only on Saudi Arabia, but on the Arab and Muslim world and the world at large. There is not a corner of the world that you have not touched through your words and your actions, nor is there a significant issue that you have not set all of your efforts towards.
It is with a heavy heart that I write today upon your resignation from a role that you have elevated and distinguished through your strength of character, your sweeping accomplishments, and a legacy inscribed also in the souls of every Saudi Arabian. While it is not easy to think of you outside of your role as foreign minister, I know that your continued contribution will provide discernment, skill and hope to our beloved country.
Saudi Arabia has had only three foreign ministers in its history, one being your father, the noble King Faisal, who was tragically assassinated. It speaks volumes that the only other foreign minister refused – due to his noble character – to sit in your father’s chair at the foreign ministry, out of respect for the King and his achievements.
In your 40 years as foreign minister, you honoured your father’s memory every day and with every action, employing caution and perseverance and turning around odds that were stacked against us to make them work for us. Through that rare combination of great intelligence and humility you possess, you have dissected issues like no other, guided our country always to safety and accomplishment and given hope to those who were eternally unconvinced.
You never gave up, and you taught us to judge each day not by the harvest reaped, but by the seeds planted. Each of your 40 years as foreign minister holds more than 40 stories to tell. And in any final counting you scored very high, never letting go. You always managed to go the extra step, contributing more than anyone could expect in the defence of Arabs and Muslims and in the constancy of your fight for peace.
To draw on but one accomplishment, which to me embodies what you represent to Arabs and the world, I would point to the lengthy and complex discussions you led in Ta’if to end the Lebanese civil war. It is telling that the name Ta’if resounds today like Camp David, as a place where peace is reached through patience and focus. It was one of your hardiest missions, bringing together so many disparate factions of a torn society to unanimously accept the terms of resolution of a deadly and intractable 15-year conflict.
You showed your mettle, your sophistication, and your deep knowledge of the DNA of compromise in making things work where everyone else had failed. To me, that dedication, that patience, and intricate understanding of the many connected issues involved, is what has defined your tenure as foreign minister. It is the spark we see in your eye that sets you apart from all others in the world of diplomacy.
Of course, we failed here or there, but never for lack of trying. You brought your own sauce – hot, spicy and tasty – to everything you touched; a sauce full of energy and intellectual vigour.
I once said of you that you were like the Google of Arabia. Now you are the wellspring of the destiny of Arabia. Your character, your values, your patience and your humility are inscribed in the rocks of Arabia, establishing a firm base for our country to continue to build upon and to draw hope from. Yours is a map of leadership and advice that we will continue to follow, a river that will continue to flow.
You defined for Saudi Arabia and the world the words of one Marcus Tullius Cicero, who aptly said: “It is not by muscle, speed or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character and judgment.”
My dear friend, over the years of this most valuable friendship I have never for a second had to question your mettle, the hope, love and kindness that you extend to me but also to every member of your family and so many other people whose lives you touch. The wisdom, the care, the kindness, and the tenderness you offer the old and the young alike are a daily testament to your extraordinary character. So many stories come to mind that must be written or be told.
In the end I must say: there is no true retirement for somebody who has written and carved hope into the heart of Arabia.
Hassan Yassin is a Saudi political analyst
