عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Features

Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman… The Oil Diplomat

Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman… The Oil Diplomat
TT
20
TT

Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman… The Oil Diplomat

Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman… The Oil Diplomat

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has known many highly qualified ministers and technocrats, but very few people knew how to assume a high diplomatic role in which political cards are mixed with the technical vision.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who was named as energy minister this month, is one of the most prominent oil diplomats in OPEC history. With his appointment, Prince Abdulaziz became the sixth minister in the history of Saudi Arabia to receive the oil file, after Abdullah al-Tariki, Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Hisham Nazer, Ali al-Nuaimi, and Khaled al-Falih.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman is the fourth son of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, after Princes Fahd, Sultan, and Ahmed. Since the 1980s, he has been active in the Energy ministry and has been a steady member of the Saudi delegation to OPEC.

In many situations, he was the “link” between the oil world and the higher authorities in the Kingdom, and in others, he was the mediator between the various OPEC countries.

“He was born into power, he understands power — when to use it and when not to use it,” said OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo.

Prince Abdulaziz has always worked with clear diplomacy behind the scenes. But everyone who worked at OPEC knew what role he assumed.

He signed many achievements during his previous career with the Ministry of Petroleum (now Energy).

For example, he was part of the Kingdom’s negotiating delegation to join the World Trade Organization. One of the prince’s most notable achievements was the National Energy Conservation Campaign, which managed to move stagnating water to save Saudi oil, which was burned in terrible quantities every year.

The prince devoted most of his time to this campaign since 2013. Many accomplishments were made within its framework, including eliminating non-energy-saving air conditioners, setting strict requirements for the import of electrical appliances, and changing the specifications of cars imported by the Kingdom to be more fuel-efficient.

At OPEC, Prince Abdulaziz is popular with delegations and dozens of journalists who meet him constantly.

“People abroad do not realize unfortunately that when the princes enter the Ministry of Petroleum, they take off their ‘Bisht’ (cloak) and work like everyone else; they are the same as other employees. Hadn't we worked hard, the Saudi oil industry would not have been a leader now,” Prince Abdulaziz said in one of the occasions.

Apart from oil diplomacy, who is Prince Abdulaziz? How did his journey begin with oil?

In 1987, Prince Abdulaziz received a call from Minister Hisham Nazer, who had succeeded Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani in late 1986. He asked him to join him in the ministry.

“I was very happy when the minister called me, but I was on vacation,” Prince Abdulaziz said. “I was newly married at the time and hesitated a lot to end my vacation and join the minister. But I found all the support from my wife and decided to cut off the leave and join the delegation,” he recounted.

Before joining the ministry, the prince was active in the academic world. He lived in the Eastern Province, where he headed the Department of Economic and Industrial Studies at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran.

Prince Abdulaziz’s career in the ministry began in 1987 as an adviser to the minister, a position he held until 1995 when he was appointed as Undersecretary for Petroleum Affairs. In May 2004, a royal order was issued appointing him as senior assistant minister of petroleum affairs. He remained in office until he became deputy minister and then minister of state for energy.

Prince Abdulaziz is also an active member of the Board of Governors of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in Britain and the International Association for Energy Economics in Washington, DC.

Most Viewed

 
Features

What Would Lifting US Sanctions on Syria Mean to the War-Torn Country?

People walk past a billboard displaying Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past a billboard displaying Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

What Would Lifting US Sanctions on Syria Mean to the War-Torn Country?

People walk past a billboard displaying Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past a billboard displaying Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump with a slogan thanking Saudi Arabia and the United States, in Damascus on May 14, 2025. (AFP)

President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will ease sanctions on Syria could eventually facilitate the country’s recovery from years of civil war and transform the lives of everyday Syrians.

But experts say it will take time, and the process for lifting the sanctions — some of which were first introduced 47 years ago — is unclear.

“I think people view sanctions as a switch that you turn on and off,” said Karam Shaar, a Syrian economist who runs the consultancy firm Karam Shaar Advisory Limited. “Far from it.”

Still, the move could bring much-needed investment to the country, which is emerging from decades of autocratic rule by the Assad family as well as the war. It needs tens of billions of dollars to restore its battered infrastructure and pull an estimated 90% of the population out of poverty.

And Trump’s pledge has already had an effect: Syrians celebrated in streets across the country, and Arab leaders in neighboring nations that host millions of refugees who fled Syria’s war praised the announcement.

What are the US sanctions on Syria? Washington has imposed three sanctions programs on Syria. In 1979, the country was designated a “state sponsor of terrorism” because its military was involved in neighboring Lebanon's civil war and had backed armed groups there, and eventually developed strong ties with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

In 2003, then-President George W. Bush signed the Syria Accountability Act into law, as his administration faced off with Iran and Tehran-backed governments and groups in the Middle East. The legislation focused heavily on Syria's support of designated terror groups, its military presence in Lebanon, its alleged development of weapons of mass destruction, as well as oil smuggling and the backing of armed groups in Iraq after the US-led invasion.

In 2019, during Trump's first term, he signed the Caesar Act, sanctioning Syrian troops and others responsible for atrocities committed during the civil war.

Caesar is the code name for a Syrian photographer who took thousands of photographs of victims of torture and other abuses and smuggled them out of the country. The images, taken between 2011 and 2013, were turned over to human rights advocates, exposing the scale of the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown on political opponents and dissidents during countrywide protests.

What has been the impact of US sanctions on Syria? The sanctions — along with similar measures by other countries — have touched every part of the Syrian economy and everyday life in the country.

They have led to shortages of goods from fuel to medicine, and made it difficult for humanitarian agencies responding to receive funding and operate fully.

Companies around the world struggle to export to Syria, and Syrians struggle to import goods of any kind because nearly all financial transactions with the country are banned. That has led to a blossoming black market of smuggled goods.

Simple tasks like updating smartphones are difficult, if not impossible, and many people resort to virtual private networks, or VPNs, which mask online activity, to access the internet because many websites block users with Syrian IP addresses.

The impact was especially stark after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Türkiye and northern Syria in February 2023, compounding the destruction and misery that the war had already brought.

Though the US Treasury issued a six-month exemption on all financial transactions related to disaster relief, the measures had limited effect since banks and companies were nervous to take the risk, a phenomenon known as over-compliance.

Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa — who led the insurgency that ousted President Bashar al-Assad — has argued the sanctions have outlived their purpose and are now only harming the Syrian people and ultimately preventing the country from any prospect of recovery.

Trump and Sharaa met Wednesday.

Washington eased some restrictions temporarily in January but did not lift the sanctions. Britain and the European Union have eased some of their measures.

What could lifting the sanctions mean for Syria? After Trump’s announcement, Syria's currency gained 60% on Tuesday night — a signal of how transformational the removal of sanctions could be.

Still, it will take time to see any tangible impact on Syria's economy, experts say, but removing all three sanctions regimes could bring major changes to the lives of Syrians, given how all-encompassing the measures are.

It could mean banks could return to the international financial system or car repair shops could import spare parts from abroad. If the economy improves and reconstruction projects take off, many Syrian refugees who live in crowded tented encampments relying on aid to survive could decide to return home.

“If the situation stabilized and there were reforms, we will then see Syrians returning to their country if they were given opportunities as we expect,” says Lebanese economist Mounis Younes.

The easing of sanctions also has an important symbolic weight because it would signal that Syria is no longer a pariah, said Shaar.

Mathieu Rouquette, Mercy Corps’ country director for Syria, said the move “marks a potentially transformative moment for millions of Syrians who have endured more than 13 years of economic hardship, conflict, and displacement.”

But it all depends on how Washington goes about it.

“Unless enough layers of sanctions are peeled off, you cannot expect the positive impacts on Syria to start to appear,” said Shaar. “Even if you remove some of the top ones, the impact economically would still be nonexistent.”