Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Saud (Arabic: عبد العزيز بن عبد الله آل سعودʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd Allāh Āl Suʿūd; born 27 October 1962) is a Saudi royal and businessman who served as the deputy minister of foreign affairs from 2011 to 2015.
Abdulaziz bin Abdullah served in the Saudi Arabian National Guard for fifteen years in different positions.[6] In 1991, he was appointed as an advisor to Crown Prince Abdullah.[6][7] Specifically, he was advisor of the Crown Prince Abdullah for Syrian affairs.[8] He was also a state minister.[9]
King Abdullah appointed Prince Abdulaziz as deputy foreign minister on 22 July 2011.[6][10] During the Syrian civil war, Prince Abdulaziz asked Turkey to establish "nerve centre" attempting to topple Bashar Assad.[11] The center was founded in Adana in the mid-2012.[11] Prince Abdulaziz personally dealt with Bashar Assad's file following the civil war in Syria.[12]
Prince Abdulaziz represented Saudi Arabia at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran from 30 to 31 August 2012, since foreign affairs minister Prince Saud had an operation and could not attend the meeting.[13][14] Prince Abdulaziz met with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad during his stay in Tehran.[14] His tenure ended in April 2015 when Saud Al Faisal resigned from his post as foreign minister due to health concerns.[15]
Prince Abdulaziz is owner of Tower Lane Properties, a land development firm. It is reported that the company spent $12 million on five-and-a-quarter acres of land in the Benedict Canyon in 2009, and applied for permits to build a mansion. The project, later, was reduced to 60,000-square-foot. However, more than 1,000 residents of the area signed a petition against this project, requiring an environmental review. The Prince's lawyers filed a case against this petition.[16] Prince Abdulaziz won his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles in late August 2012.[17]
Abdulaziz bin Abdullah founded the Centennial Fund in July 2004 and is the chairman of the Fund which is a nonprofit organization with the goal of supporting the Saudi business.[10][18] He is also one of the members of the KAUST Board of Trustees.[19][20] Delano Roosevelt, who is a grandson of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prince Abdulaziz jointly established the Friends of Saudi Arabia.[21] This organization seeks to foster the friendly relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.[10] Prince Abdulaziz is also chairman of the board of trustees of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Award for Translation.[22]
Abdulaziz bin Abdullah is married and has four children, three from his previous marriage to Abeer bint Turki bin Nasser,[24] and one from Nathalie Ghassan Maamary.
^Simon Henderson (1994). "After King Fahd"(PDF). Washington Institute. Archived from the original(Policy Paper) on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
^ abSaeed Naqvi (7–13 September 2012). "Non Alignment 2.0". The Friday Times. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
^P. R. Kumaraswamy; Md. Muddassir Quamar (2016). "More effective as regent than as monarch: Abdullah's reform legacy". Contemporary Arab Affairs. 9 (3): 445–460. doi:10.1080/17550912.2016.1189108.
^"About Us". King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
^Simon Henderson (August 2009). "After King Abdullah"(PDF). Washington Institute. Archived from the original(Policy Paper) on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
Media related to Abdulaziz bin Abdullah at Wikimedia Commons
