Nayef bin Abdul Aziz
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| Nayef bin Abdul Aziz |
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| House of Saud |
| Nayef bin Abdul Aziz al Saud |
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Nayef bin Abdul Aziz (Arabic: الأمير نايف بن عبد العزيز آل سعود) is one of the six surviving members of the Sudairi Seven, all sons of King Ibn Saud and Hassa bint Ahmad Al Sudairi. Born in the city of Taif in 1933, Prince Nayef has held the following government positions:
- Governor of Riyadh, 1953-1954
- Deputy Minister of the Interior 1970
- Minister of State for Internal Affairs, 1970 and President, Supreme Council for Information;
- Minister of the Interior since 1975.
Early on in his career, Nayef developed a reputation of loyalty to his brothers, of relative personal & professional austerity in juxtaposition to the image of waste & questionable morality within the Al Saud, and professional competence, albeit with an air of unimmaginative leadership relying heavily on the innovativeness of his Deputy, Prince Ahmed, but more importantly,on the support of his oldest full brother, Prince, and later, King Fahd.
Prince Nayef's career has had intricate links with that of King Fahd who was his predecessor, and mentor, as Minister of Interior. Trusting Nayef implicitly, Fahd's support consolidated the formidable power of the Ministry and bolstered Nayef into among the most powerful of the Al Sauds. Periods of discord among the Sudairi Seven, especially between King Fahd & Prince Sultan were balanced by Nayef's ability to counter the backroom political skills of Sultan. Leaving fellow Sudairi, and Riyadh Governor, Prince Salman the job of clearing the rubble of the Fahd-Sultan battles, Nayef would assume the leadership mantle on their behalf, giving the appearance to ousiders of their unity and power, while issues were ironed out between his warring older siblings. Fahd's stroke in 1995, and his death in 2005, diluted much of Nayef's political strength within the Al Saud and though he has committed his resources in supporting older brother, the influential Vice Minister of Defence, Prince Abd al-Rahman, he has done so at his own expense as is seen by his inability to being named Saudi Arabia's Second Deputy Prime Minister.
The death of King Fahd on August 1, 2005, and ascension of King Abdullah to the throne made Prince Nayef, technically, the third most powerful man in Saudi Arabia, though he remains, at best, fifth in the Saudi line of succession. He is more active in the government than the nominally senior surviving member of the Sudairi Seven, the elderly and ailing Crown Prince Sultan, though he has delegated much of the day-to-day responsibilities of the Interior Ministry to his brother, Deputy Minister Prince Ahmed and to his son, Assistant Minister for Security Affairs Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
[edit] Saudi Arabia's Powerful Ministry of Interior
The Ministry of the Interior oversees the provincial governates, public security & law enforcement, the coast guards, civil defence, fire prevention services, border police, special security, domestic intelligence (Mabahith al-'Amma), special investigative functions, including criminal investigation and is responsible for liaising with the Mutawa in the kingdom.
As the Interior Minister, Prince Nayef is also the Supervisor General of the Saudi Committee for the Al Quds Intifada, which supports and compensates the families of the Palestinean Intifada including those of suicide bombers. These compensations have become controversial though they have been recognized as an essential part of Islamic tradition which requires Muslims to care for families who have endured loss. His monetary contributions have been viewed, mostly by non-Muslims, as possible incentives to carry out such bombings. It is believed that Prince Nayef has personally contributed at least $33 million to Intifada families
The critical nature of Prince Nayef's position appears to have made himself irremovable. He is in a position to remind brothers, Crown Prince Sultan and King Abdullah, that regardless of who makes the public statements, it is he who maintains the stability of the kingdom, and his Ministry, which he controls with an iron hand, that keeps the Al Saud in power. It was Nayef, and not foreign minister Saud al Faisal, who went to Iran for a ground breaking meeting to renew relations with the regime in April 2001. Similarly, it is the job of the information minister to control the content of all media in the Kingdom. Since 1995, the position has been held by Dr. Fouad bin Abdul Salaam bin Muhammad Al Farsi--but Prince Nayef heads the Supreme Council on Information, which oversees the processing of information including controls on the World Wide Web.
Following the revelation that a member of the royal family had indirectly, and inadvertently, funded a 9/11 hijacker, Prince Nayef, albeit briefly, resurrected the view that Mossad was behind the attacks. An article in the English edition of the Saudi newsweekly Ain Al-Yaqeen of 29 November 2002, states:
Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz publicly stated that he suspected that the terrorist organizations had relationships with foreign intelligence services that worked against Arab and Muslims, and were led by Israeli intelligence, with the ultimate goal of embarassing, and accusing, the religion and its adherents, thereby hurting the Palestinean issue and the Islamic Ummah.
The Al Saud backed away from this stand shortly thereafter, primarily through their continued active support against international terrorism.
Nayef implemented the Al Saud decision to begin issuing women with identity cards in November 2001. The Directorate of Civil Status issued the first identity cards to women on 3 November, thus making it much easier for women to carry out transactions - financial, legal and social - and is therefore considered a highly significant move. Previously women were registered on their husband's or father's identity cards.
