Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz

Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz 2002

Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saʿud (عبد الله بن عبد العزيز آل سعود / ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd ; born on August 1, 1924 in Riyadh ; † January 23, 2015 ibid) was an absolutist king and prime minister of Saudi Arabia from August 1, 2005 until his death . As a result, he was also the commander in chief of the Saudi military . As crown prince in fact , he had already been in charge of state affairs since November 1995 after his half-brother, the then King Fahd ibn Abd al-Aziz , suffered a stroke.

Abdullah was the 15th of 37 sons of the state's founder, King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, in the official order of birth. Two of his potential heirs to the throne, Crown Prince Sultan ibn Abd al-Aziz and Crown Prince Naif ibn Abd al-Aziz , died prematurely.

Life

King Abdullah as a falconer in his younger years

Abdullah was born in Riyadh to Ibn Saud's eighth wife, Princess Fahda bint al-Asi bin Shuraim of the Shammar tribe . Abdullah received his education at the "prince school" of the Saudi court. Part of the upbringing was living with the country's Bedouins . On October 13, 1962, he was appointed commander of the Saudi National Guard , and on March 25, 1975, he was appointed 2nd Deputy Prime Minister. On July 13, 1982 he became first deputy prime minister and crown prince. Abdullah was married nine times in his life. From these marriages he had fourteen sons and twenty daughters. Princess Hussah bint Trad bin Sattam asch-Schaʿlan was designated as his official wife, so she was considered his main wife . Princess Hussah is from Syria . She is the sister of the wife of Rifaat al-Assad , the younger brother of the late Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad and aunt of the current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad .

Abdullah died on January 23, 2015 at the age of 90 of complications from pneumonia. Abdullah's successor was his 79-year-old half-brother Salman ibn Abd al-Aziz .

Religious and political belief

Abdullah was considered a devout Muslim and a cautious modernizer of his country. Local elections took place under his reign, the first ever elections in Saudi Arabia, although no parties were allowed to participate. In contrast to his late half-brother Fahd, Abdullah's main focus was on local Arab foreign policy. He succeeded in persuading the warring Palestinian leaders of Fatah and Hamas to sign a peace treaty in the holy city of Mecca on February 8, 2007, but which did not succeed in resolving the internal conflicts of the Palestinians .

Relationship with the USA

In October 1976, Abdullah traveled to the United States for the first time and met then President Gerald Ford . In 1987 he met then Vice President George HW Bush . In September 1998, Abdullah paid a state visit to the United States under President Bill Clinton . After that he visited the USA several times. The king was considered a personal friend of the Bush family and a friend of America.

In January 2008, President George W. Bush visited Saudi Arabia and met with King Abdullah. The nuclear dispute with Iran and the oil price were discussed. Bush demanded that the king increase oil production and thus lower the oil price. The announced arms deliveries from the USA to Saudi Arabia worth 20 billion US dollars were also specified.

King Abdullah led Bush to his horse ranch, gave him presents and awarded him the "King Abdulaziz Order of Honor" as a token of his confidence .

Attitude to terrorism

Shortly after September 11, 2001 , as international criticism of Saudi Arabia grew, Abdullah stated:

“The sneaky campaign that the western media has launched against the kingdom is nothing more than a manifestation of a deep-seated hatred directed against the path of Islam . Turning to Islam and the homeland is not up for debate. "

On the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Crown Prince wrote a letter to US President George W. Bush , which ended with the words:

“Almighty God in his wisdom tests the believers by allowing such calamities. But he, in His grace, also gives us the will and drive generated by faith, by which we are able to turn such tragedies into great achievements, and crises that seem to throw us down become possibilities, humanity move forward. I hope that with your cooperation and leadership, a new world will emerge from the ruins of the World Trade Center: a world blessed with the virtues of freedom, peace, growth and harmony. "

Attitude to the Middle East conflict

King Abdullah with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on February 11, 2007

King Abdullah worked for a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict . In 2002, Abdullah started the so-called Arab peace initiative, in which many saw the beginning of the Saudi attempt to make peace with Israel . The plan provided for the surrender of almost all of the Israeli-occupied territories to the Palestinians and the recognition of the Palestinian state with the capital East Jerusalem. In return, Abdullah offered far-reaching concessions for the first time, including the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a peace treaty as well as the recognition of Israel and the establishment of “normal relations” between the Arab states and Israel. The plan was abandoned after criticism from both Israel and Arab states.

In a meeting of the Arab League on March 29, 2007 in Riyadh, King Abdullah criticized the governments of the Arab states, literally saying:

“Bloodshed in occupied Iraq , paralysis in Lebanon , weak leadership in Sudan , one civil war after another in Somalia . The guilt lies with us, with us, the leaders of the Arab world. "

King Abdullah told the New York Times that he was considering taking a peace trip to Jerusalem .

In the 2006 Lebanon War , King Abdullah criticized both Hezbollah and Israel. After Ehud Olmert announced after the first days of the war that he would continue the offensive, the king warned of a new Middle East war for which Israel was to blame. Literally he said:

"If the peace option fails because of Israeli arrogance, there will be no other option but war."

The king also pledged $ 500 million to Lebanon to rebuild the country. He pledged a further $ 250 million in aid to the Palestinians.

Relationship with Iran

King Abdullah made a major contribution to improving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran . In 2001 he visited Iran and in the same year received the then Iranian President Khatami in Riyadh; this sealed the normalization of relationships.

The then Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad visited Saudi Arabia for the first time on March 1, 2007 and met with King Abdullah in Riyadh. The meeting lasted eight hours; The political climate between the two governments is said to have improved and, according to the Iranian President, there is agreement on the "central issues".

At the end of 2007, Abdullah invited Ahmadinejad to attend the Hajj . This was primarily of symbolic value, as it was the first time in the history of Arabia that a king officially invited a Shiite leader to the Hajj. Political issues are also said to have been discussed. Both countries then made it clear that they are committed to “peaceful coexistence”. The Saudi government said that, together with the other Gulf states, it wants to avoid a military attack on Iran and to arbitrate the matter of the Iranian nuclear program .

In order to defuse the nuclear dispute with Iran, King Abdullah renewed an earlier compromise proposal for the peaceful use of atomic energy in the Near and Middle East: uranium should be enriched in a neutral country and made available to the states of the Middle East. The Iranian government immediately rejected the idea as "meaningless".

Foreign trips and receptions

On April 24, 2006, he received the Chinese head of state Hu Jintao ; Above all, the regional security situation, friendly and economic issues were addressed. King Abdullah paid tribute to China's constructive role in achieving peace and promoting economic and social development in the Middle East and the Gulf region.

On August 8, 2006, he made a state visit to Turkey ; he was the first king to visit Turkey in 40 years. Six economic and one military agreements were signed. The Saudis came with a delegation of 300 politicians and business people in 7 planes. The delegation consisted only of men. The king met with the then incumbent Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer for dinner in the Dolmabahçe Palace . The next day there was a meeting with the then foreign minister, later President Abdullah Gül , the then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and officers of the Turkish armed forces. The order was also given to upgrade 300 of the 1,750 M113s of the Saudi armed forces to the latest standards. The contract was valued at US $ 200 million for the Turkish defense industry. Subsequently, on May 30, 2007, the Turkish Defense Minister Mehmet Vecdi Gönül met in Jeddah with the Crown Prince and Defense Minister Sultan ibn Abd al-Aziz and briefly with King Abdullah. High officers of the Turkish armed forces and the Saudi armed forces discussed the possibilities of further military cooperation among themselves and with the ministers.

On November 6, 2007, the king was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. received in audience. It was the first visit of the Saudi monarch and “custodian of the two holy places” of Islam (this is part of the official title of the king) to a Roman pope . The two states have no diplomatic relations . There is no Saudi Arabian citizen who is a Christian denomination.

On November 7, 2007, King Abdullah visited Germany and met for talks with Angela Merkel , the then Federal President Koehler and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier . It was about the situation in the Middle East as well as the development in Iran, said the deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg . The king had previously been received with military honors in the Chancellery . In the evening, the King's dinner with Federal President Horst Köhler in Bellevue Palace followed . Later, Abdullah went along with Berlin's Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit , the Brandenburg Gate visit and after that he signed in the Red Town Hall in the Golden Book of one. The king gave the officers of his police escort, provided by the Berlin police , a tip of US $ 24,000.

In October 2007 the King visited Great Britain , Queen Elizabeth II gave a banquet for Abdullah in London . After talks about the situation in the Middle East and arms deliveries, he was driven to Buckingham Palace with the Queen in a golden carriage . There the queen showed him pieces from her art collection.

In January 2008 he received the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Riyadh . Agreements on the promotion of the oil and gas industry as well as programs for vocational training and further education were signed. Delegations from both countries also negotiated the purchase of helicopters, ships and submarines, as well as the construction of a high-speed line between the pilgrimage sites of Mecca and Medina. Sarkozy also offered the services of the French Atomic Energy Commission to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to explore opportunities for the economic use of nuclear energy in Saudi Arabia. The meeting had previously caused a stir; According to a Saudi diplomat, Sarkozy was supposed to leave his girlfriend Carla Bruni at home “for religious reasons” . Intimate relationships between unmarried people are taboo in Saudi Arabia . The French Foreign Ministry then declared that Bruni would not travel to Saudi Arabia.

King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue

The King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue was founded by King Abdullah in 2011, opened in Vienna in 2012 and is supported by Spain and Austria. In January 2015, a dissolution of the cooperation was discussed in Austria's highest political circles, because the center is supposed to stand for tolerance and, on the other hand, in Saudi Arabia a whipping with 1000 lashes of a dissident ( Raif Badawi ) is actually carried out.

Others

In December 2005, the king laid the foundation stone for King Abdullah Economic City , a new city that will bear his name. The new city will one day have two million inhabitants. It is planned to invest 100 billion Saudi riyals .

In 2007, at the request of Polish children, he received the international award of Cavalier of the Order of Smiles .

From the death of Saqr ibn Muhammad al-Qasimi until his death on January 23, 2015, Abdullah was the oldest ruling monarch in the world. This status has now passed to Queen Elizabeth II .

literature

• Abdullah bin Abdul Asis al Saud , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 05/2012 from January 31, 2012, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Abdullah of Saudi Arabia  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Dance of Swords - Portrait of Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz on the homepage of the Orient magazine zenith

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Change of power in Saudi Arabia: Saudi King Abdullah is dead. In: Spiegel Online . January 23, 2015, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Bush demands higher oil production from Saudis. In: de.reuters.com. January 15, 2008, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Power behind throne is Saudi of a different stripe. In: csmonitor.com. November 1, 2001, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Crown Prince sends message to America on saudiembassy.net (English), accessed February 22, 2012.
5. ^ Bernhard Zand: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah: The good man of Riyadh. In: Spiegel Online . April 1, 2007, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
6. ^ Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah warns of Middle East war. In: Focus Online . July 25, 2006, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Ferhad Ibrahim: Iran and the Arab World. In: bpb.de. February 24, 2004, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Iran and Saudi Arabia: Agreement on Central Issues in the Region? In: dw-world.de. January 22, 2015, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
9. ^ Iran's president makes a pilgrimage to Mecca | FTD.de ( Memento from August 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
10. ^ Hans-Christian Rößler: Advertise for participation of Riyadh in the Middle East Conference. In: FAZ.net . November 8, 2007, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Hu Jintao meets Saudi Arabian king. In: german.china.org.cn. April 24, 2006, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Kral Abdullah Türkiye'ye geldi cnnturk.com (Turkish), accessed on 22 February 2012 found.
13. ↑ Turkey's FNSS to upgrade Saudi M113 armored vehicles ( Memento from April 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Message on todayszaman.com (English) from August 27, 2007, accessed on February 22, 2012.
14. ↑ Kral Abdullah Türkiye'de - Haberler - Turkish ( Memento from February 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ ^{a b} King Abdullah visits Great Britain Report on euronews.net of October 31, 2007, accessed on February 22, 2012.
16. ^ Sultan Meets Turkish Defense Minister
17. ^ Vatican: Interreligious Dialogue with King Saudi Arabia. In: Vatican Radio . November 6, 2007, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
18. ↑ Rudolph Chimelli: Vatican and Saudi Arabia - The Pilgrim from Riyadh. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 19, 2010, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Rainer Hermann: Saudi King in Berlin Don't talk about peace, consolidate peace . faz.net, November 7, 2007, accessed July 26, 2018.
20. ^ Wolfgang Günter Lerch: Meeting in difficult times. In: FAZ.net . November 6, 2007, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
21. ↑ Michael Behrendt: $ 24,000 tip for the police. In: welt.de . November 23, 2007, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
22. ↑ Awkward guests. In: guardian.co.uk. October 30, 2007, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
23. ↑ Matthias Rüb: Bush and Sarkozy complain about the oil price. In: FAZ.net . January 14, 2008, accessed January 24, 2015 . 
24. ↑ Bruni is not allowed to go to Saudi Arabia with Sarkozy. In: welt.de . January 7, 2008, accessed January 24, 2015 .