With the passing away of Saudi Crown Prince Nayef Bin Abdul-Aziz, Saudi Arabia has lost a statesman who had significant influence, whether it was approved or rejected at the level of internal issues. Indeed, Prince Nayef was one of the Kingdom’s symbols and part of the founding generation among the sons of King Abdul-Aziz. He enjoyed great charisma and was a revered figure. In meetings, Prince Nayef always appeared to be calm and rarely emotional or tense, relying on lengthy explanations when responding to inquiries. There is no doubt that he witnessed critical stages in the history of the third Saudi state, and was able to fight terrorism and undermine the ideology of Al-Qaeda. Moreover, he was active on the domestic and external scenes and played numerous political, social and security roles. Prince Nayef refused to compromise over security based on the motto of “security first,” and rejected any talk before the achievement of security and stability to serve the interests of the nation and the citizens and ensure the country’s development. The deceased was able to overcome numerous challenges and security incidents, accomplish successes as the chairman of the Pilgrimage Committee while managing the crowds of pilgrims every year, and ensure equal successes as the head of the Arab interior ministers’ council despite the political and geopolitical disputes between the Arab states.



When a terrorist group detonated three residential compounds in Riyadh on a sad night in 2003, the situation was confusing and dangerous, the hospitals were filled with dead and wounded children and innocent people, and some of the perpetrators were at large. I waited until morning and called the house of Interior Minister Prince Nayef at around 9am to request an interview and get new editorial information about the number of dead and wounded and his ministry’s plans to face Al-Qaeda. He was calm and in control, pledging to besiege the promoters of the errant ideology and those who back, support and fund them.



In mid 2006, along with colleague Talal al-Sheikh, I visited him in his office at the Interior Ministry, i.e. the same building which the terrorists tried to detonate in 2004 to retaliate against the security men, and found Prince Nayef sitting behind his desk signing a pile of papers and speaking with a confident and optimistic tone. He was stressing the necessity of annihilating Takfiri and pro-bombings ideology, expressing relief over the security successes and pointing to the fact that the security men were able to thwart around 90% of the terrorist operations that were set up for implementation.



The meeting in his office lasted around an hour, during which we inquired about numerous issues and he responded to many questions, although most of them featured accusations and I often interrupted him as he was answering them. Before leaving the office we told him: “We will publish what went on during this meeting,” to which he said: “This is up to you.” And indeed, we published a very interesting dialogue whose headline was: “Announcement of imminent establishment of special court to prosecute those involved in terrorism, and judges to be named soon.”



Following the September 11 attacks, Prince Nayef rejected his country’s accusation of producing terrorism or the description of the Saudi people of being “terrorists,” indicating to the Western media outlets that the Saudis – just like the Americans and Westerners – were the victims of terrorism. At the time, he took a serious stand to defend his country and refute any accusation affecting it, even detonating new information. He said that “the terrorists who are carrying out explosions and killing the innocent have no political ceiling, national demands or religious or humanitarian goals. They are professional murderers, no matter how hard they try to depict themselves as being pious and defending the Islamic religion which renounces them.” May Prince Nayef’s soul rest in peace.



jameel@alhayat.com

twitter | @JameelTheyabi