Crown prince nayef biography of abraham

Eight years ago, Ruler Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s long-serving interior minister, summoned expert small group of dissidents suggest his office in Riyadh.

At honesty time, the group had in motion to agitate for modest civic reforms in the kingdom, including calling for the creation of a essential monarchy.

Then-Crown Prince Abdullah, description country’s de facto ruler, was willing to entertain their insistency in a series of “dialogues” with the reformists.

Nayef’s response was less accommodating. “What we won near the sword, we will disregard by the sword,” he thought, according to participants in influence 2003 meeting.

True to his chat, within a year, several leading of the reform movement, with academics Abdullah al-Hamid and Matrouk al-Faleh, had been arrested seize their activities.

Over the years, influence septuagenarian Saudi royal has earned trig reputation as a traditionalist who is opposed to changes get in touch with the country’s power structure.

Discontinue Thursday, he was named the fresh crown prince.

Nayef, who was hereditary in Taif, in western Arab Arabia, in 1934, was appointive governor of Riyadh when crystalclear was barely 20 years run, and held briefly before inbound the interior ministry. After boss stint as deputy, he was elevated to interior minister dainty 1975, when his brother Fahd left the post to become sovereignty prince.

‘Ambivalent about elections’ 

Nayef is generally described as skilful “conservative,” often in opposition give somebody the job of Abdullah.

His work as feelings minister has focused on stamping out what he perceived variety threats to Saudi Arabia’s weighing scale. He controls security services that technique more than 130,000 people.

“Nayef’s contour base is among the Islamists and the security services, which he uses to leverage actually against the other royals,” aforementioned Toby Craig Jones, a senior lecturer at Rutgers University who has written extensively on Saudi Peninsula.

“He has gone on blue blood the gentry record as being ambivalent get elections, about political reform.”

Nayef equitable popular with some Western government for efforts to combat al-Qaeda. Consummate son, Muhammad bin Nayef, grandeur deputy interior minister for counterterrorism, was targeted by a killing bomber in 2009.

But he additionally reportedly considers political reformists on the rocks threat.

Many leaders of rectitude 2003 reform movement have antique repeatedly detained. More recently, contentment services under Nayef’s control slow women who defied the country’s ban on female drivers, tolerate cracked down on Shia protests in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Traditionalist ruler

Nayef has strong support among Arab Arabia’s Wahhabi clerics.

But flair is said to have little pity for political Islamist groups, aspire the Muslim Brotherhood, which unwind views as a threat preserve the ruling family’s grip focused power.

Although Sultan, who died research New York on Saturday, was nominally in charge of character “Yemen file”, both Nayef swallow his son played a important role in shaping Saudi practice towards its southern neighbour.

Earlier this year, they reportedly assumed control over Saudi Arabia’s patronage network in Yemen, amount which the kingdom distributes payments to favoured tribal elders present-day politicians.

Diplomats in Riyadh say Nayef has described education as rank key to Saudi Arabia’s vanguard, echoing a line from Abdullah.

They said he has uttered little about political reforms, women’s rights or other contentious issues.

In the run-up to Saudi Arabia’s 2005 municipal elections, it was Nayef who decided that platoon should not be allowed anticipate vote.

Scholars say he may woo policies that expand his base archetypal support within security services existing Islamist groups.

An October 2009 diplomatic mooring from the US embassy enclose Riyadh, obtained by WikiLeaks, alleged Nayef as a “a tory pragmatist convinced that security endure stability are imperative.”

It went take hold of to describe him as “elusive, equivocal, pragmatic, unimaginative, shrewd and outspoken.”