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Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman… The Oil Diplomat

Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman… The Oil Diplomat
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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.

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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)

In the quiet seaside town of Amchit, 45 minutes north of Beirut, public schools are finally in session again, alongside tens of thousands of internally displaced people who have made some of them a makeshift shelter.

As Israeli strikes on Lebanon escalated in September, hundreds of schools in Lebanon were either destroyed or closed due to damage or security concerns, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Of around 1,250 public schools in Lebanon, 505 schools have also been turned into temporary shelters for some of the 840,000 people internally displaced by the conflict, according to the Lebanese education ministry.

Last month, the ministry started a phased reopening, allowing 175,000 students - 38,000 of whom are displaced - to return to a learning environment that is still far from normal, Reuters reported.

At Amchit Secondary Public School, which now has 300 enrolled students and expects more as displaced families keep arriving, the once-familiar spaces have transformed to accommodate new realities.

Two-and-a-half months ago, the school was chosen as a shelter, school director Antoine Abdallah Zakhia said.

Today, laundry hangs from classroom windows, cars fill the playground that was once a bustling area, and hallways that used to echo with laughter now serve as resting areas for families seeking refuge.

Fadia Yahfoufi, a displaced woman living temporarily at the school, expressed gratitude mixed with longing.

"Of course, we wish to go back to our homes. No one feels comfortable except at home," she said.

Zeina Shukr, another displaced mother, voiced her concerns for her children's education.

"This year has been unfair. Some children are studying while others aren't. Either everyone studies, or the school year should be postponed," she said.

- EDUCATION WON'T STOP

OCHA said the phased plan to resume classes will enrol 175,000 students, including 38,000 displaced children, across 350 public schools not used as shelters.

"The educational process is one of the aspects of resistance to the aggression Lebanon is facing," Education Minister Abbas Halabi told Reuters

Halabi said the decision to resume the academic year was difficult as many displaced students and teachers were not psychologically prepared to return to school.

In an adjacent building at Amchit Secondary Public School, teachers and students are adjusting to a compressed three-day week, with seven class periods each day to maximize learning time.

Nour Kozhaya, a 16-year-old Amchit resident, remains optimistic. "Lebanon is at war, but education won't stop. We will continue to pursue our dreams," she said.

Teachers are adapting to the challenging conditions.

"Everyone is mentally exhausted ... after all this war is on all of us," Patrick Sakr, a 38-year-old physics teacher, said.

For Ahmad Ali Hajj Hassan, a displaced 17-year-old from the Bekaa region, the three-day school week presents a challenge, but not a deterrent.

"These are the conditions. We can study despite them," he said.