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Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud

Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud / Naif bin Abdulaziz died 16 June 2012. News reports said he died in Geneva, where he had recently traveled to seek treatment for an undisclosed illness. He was in his late 70s. Prince Nayef, the long-time interior minister, had been next in line to the Saudi throne. Soon after the death on 22 October 2011 of Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, another half-brother of King Abdullah and one of the Sudairi Seven, became the crown prince. The crown prince is chosen by the Allegiance Council, a group that includes relatives of the crown prince.

His Majesty Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud was the Second Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In AH 1430/2009, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz appointed Prince Naif bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud Second Deputy Premier, at which time Prince Naif was a spry 75 years of age. He had been interior minister since 1975. Prince Naif held some of the highest and most important positions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for many years. These include the following: Representative of the Principality of Riyadh 1951-1952; Governor of Riyadh, 1953-54; Deputy Minister of the Interior; Minister of State for Internal Affairs, 1970; President, Supreme Council for Information.

His Majesty was born in the city of Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in 1934. He was the twenty-third son of the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud. One of the powerful Sudairi Seven that dominated the regular armed forces, Prince Naif was the half-brother of King Abdullah, who is a leader of the Shammar branch of the Al Saud, a rival source of power to the Sudairi branch. He was educated in the princes' school, in addition to receiving instruction from his father and eminent religious leaders. He received his education in the specialist Princes School and continued his studies with high level scholars choosing to specialize in politics, culture and security based sciences.

Prince Nayef was said to be one of the most conservative forces in the ruling family and was feared by liberals and reformers. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States Nayef initially denied that Saudis were among the hijackers, suggesting instead that Jews must be behind the attacks. Naif was a key defendant in a lawsuit filed by kin of 9/11 victims, who charge him with funneling millions of dollars through charities to Osama bin Laden's network as part of a secret pact to keep al Qaeda out of Saudi Arabia. Interviewed in Ain-Al-Yaqeen a year after 9/11, Naif explained that Arabs were not involved in the attacks: "We put big question marks and ask who committed the events of September 11 and who benefited from them. Who benefited from events of 9/11? I think they [the Jews] are behind these events."

Prince Nayef also resisted working with Western security agencies. He was energetic in crushing al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula when the group launched a violent campaign against the Saudi government in 2003. To Islamist charges against the royal family of corruption, loose living and the abuse of power, he once replied: "These shortcomings and mistakes can happen in any society. We are trying to solve our mistakes. I would say that nobody is one hundred per cent perfect.''

Prince Nayef had been Minister of the Interior since 1975. The Ministry of the Interior oversees public security, coast guards, civil defense, fire stations, border police, special security and investigative functions, including criminal investigation. Successes for Prince Nayef have included placing Mubathath (Interior Ministry) employees in all overseas embassies.

In December 1994 Prince Nayef directed the crackdown on fundamentalists and ordered hundreds of arrests. In doing so he had the active support of Prince Turki bin Faycal, head of the intelligence services.

Prince Nayef was the supervisor general of the Saudi Committee for the Al Quds Intifada, which helps the families of suicide bombers. A Saudi government press release from January 2001 notes that the "Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Quds Intifada", headed and administered by Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, the kingdom's interior minister, had distributed $33 million to "deserving Palestinians"including "the families of 2,281 prisoners and 358 martyrs." Other releases from subsequent months detailed further payments to Palestinian "martyrs" totaling tens of millions of dollars. In July 2001 Prince Nayif Bin-Abd-al-Aziz, the minister of interior and the general supervisor of the Saudi committee for supporting Al-Quds intifadah (uprising) directed the committee to disburse an amount of SR5.57m [Saudi riyals] to help the needy people in Palestine. The financial assistance will be disbursed to 28 families of the martyrs, 248 injured people, 232 families whose houses were demolished by the Israeli occupying forces and 29 Palestinian charitable societies in charge of distributing food baskets to the needy people. The executive committee for supporting Al-Quds intifadah has started disbursing the money directly to the needy people in Palestine.

A decision to begin issuing women with identity cards was taken for the first time in November 2001. The Directorate of Civil Status issued the first identity cards to women on 3 November, thus making it much easier for women to carry out transactions - financial, legal and social - and is therefore considered a highly significant move. Previously Saudi women were registered on their husband's or father's identity cards. The move has the backing of Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who had made a series of supportive comments. On March 16, 2002, fourteen girls wre killed and over 50 were injured due to a fire in a girls school in Mecca. The Religious Police ( Mutaween) did not allow the Fire Department to save the girls in the pretext that girls should be covered up and that Men can not enter a girls school. Prince Nayef, Minister of Interior, promised stiff action against these Mutaween.

Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud was the president of a number of executive bodies both inside and outside of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. From among the most important of them were the following:

• Honorary President of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers.
• Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Naif Arab University of Security Sciences (NAUSS).
• Chairman of the Executive Council of Civil Defense in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Chairman of the Executive Commission for Industrial Security in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Chairman of the Executive Hajj Committee in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Chairman of the Executive Commission for the Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz International Award for the prophetic Sunnah and Contemporary Islamic Studies.

His Majesty gave special attention to academia and knowledge due to his firm belief in its positive effects on the individual and society. Some of the most important achievements of Majesty in this area were the following:

• Playing the major role in establishing Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) which was named such by the Council of Arab Interior Ministers due to the leading role played by His Majesty in supporting this center of security learning since it was first established in 1978.
• Yearly academic grants provided from His Majesty's personal wealth to those exceptional postgraduate students at NAUSS who come from all over the Arab world.
• Establishing the Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz International Award for the prophetic Sunnah and Contemporary Islamic Studies.
• Establishing the Prince Naif Academic Chair for Teaching Arabic and Islamic Studies in Moscow University.
• Establishing the Prince Naif Academic Chair for Studies in National Unity in Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As Minister of Interior since 1975, Nayif had a strong institutional power base that touches nearly every Saudi citizen's life, whether they know it or not.Nayif promoted a vision for Saudi society under the slogan of "intellectual security," which he advocates as needed to "purge aberrant ideas." This is a key difference with King Abdullah, whose strategy to reduce extremism includes an emphasis on dialogue, tolerance of differences, and knowledge-based education that is objectionable to many conservatives. The Saudi royal family's adherence to tradition as the only sure way to avoid instability was probably Nayif's strongest advantage in his bid to become the next crown prince.

A story circulated among long-time Saudi watchers that Nayif's personal views of the U.S. have been negatively "colored" by the discovery of a listening device in his office following the visit of a U.S. delegation. As Nayif's public comments after 9/11 (it was the "Jews"), his ultra-cautious approach to reform, his obstructionism in the Khobar Towers investigation, and his initial refusal to accept that terrorist financing from the Kingdom is a serious problem all demonstrate, Nayif can be difficult, stubborn, and unreasonable. These traits did not reflect "anti-American" attitudes so much as prickliness to perceived outside pressure and interference in the Kingdom's affairs.

In March 2009 he was appointed as Second Deputy Prime Minister. Nayif was widely seen as a hard-line conservative who at best is lukewarm to King Abdullah's reform initiatives. However, it would be more accurate to describe him as a conservative pragmatist convinced that security and stability are imperative to preserve Al Saud rule and ensure prosperity for Saudi citizens.

Necessarily loyal to the King (though not always to his ideas), Nayif was a skilled practitioner of the art of balancing the competing religious and reformist factions in Saudi society. He harbored anti-Shia biases and his worldview is colored by deep suspicion of Iran, despite his active role in developing Saudi-Iranian relations. His foreign policy instincts are guided by his belief that security cooperation should not be affected by politics. A firm authoritarian at heart, he is skeptical of initiatives to expand political participation or women's rights.

Under his leadership, security forces successfully defeated an Al Qaeda-led insurgency. To do so, the MOI had to become much more professional and efficient, with the result that Nayif commanded an internal security apparatus that is battle-tested and far more capable of exerting political and social control throughout the country. MOI's proficiency contrasts clearly with the halting pace of most other Saudi government organs.

Nayif also supervised the Kingdom's 13 provincial governors. Nayif did not hesitate to use the authority at his command to keep himself in the public eye, even for seemingly minor matters such as personally issuing a directive on how Saudi citizens must report lost or stolen official documents, or attempting to restrict Saudis' access to foreign embassy social functions where alcohol is served.

Nayif's education in affairs of state came under the tutelage of his older full brother, the late King Fahd, whom he succeeded as interior minister when the latter became Crown Prince. A primary lesson imparted was the need to balance Saudi Arabia's competing religious and reformist factions. Following the disastrous take over of the Mecca Grand Mosque in 1979 by religious fanatics critical of Al Saud profligacy, Fahd adopted the title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques." The lesson was not lost on Nayif. Both a key pillar of support and a source of instability, the country's religious establishment and the reactionaries who periodically ascend to its leadership require deft handling. Their management is among the Interior Minister's most critical functions. The Al Saud have traditionally preferred conciliation and co-option to coercive measures.

Given his paramount concern with maintaining stability, Nayif's instincts tend towards concessions to religious demands, especially on cultural/social issues such as the role of the morals police -- the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV). This is sometimes misinterpreted as opposition to reform, but more likely stems from a desire to balance competing social forces, avoid a destabilizing pace of change, and preserve a mechanism useful in maintaining social control and even fighting terror.

He was described as elusive, ambiguous, pragmatic, unimaginative, shrewd, and outspoken. He retained a reputation as anti-Western, though willing to do business when shared interests are involved. He is not known for personal religious piety (indeed, he was rumored to be a heavy drinker in his younger days), but his conservatism enabled him to build support among social and religious conservatives. He appeared reserved and even a bit shy, and could initially be a bit stiff and slow to engage in meetings with Western officials. While at first avoiding eye-contact with his interlocutors, he was susceptible to flattery and, once he warms up, occasionally revealed an almost impish sense of humor.

Nayif does not show evidence of being well-educated. For example, he rarely quotes from the Quran as the King is apt to do, nor does he make the historical or literary references that Princeton-educated Saud Al-Faisal is known for. Nayif is neither well-spoken nor articulate, and has a tendency to ramble and repeat platitudes in private as well as in public. He did appear to understand and speak at least some English.

Crown Prince Nayef who had served as interior minister since 1975 until his death from a heart attack in 2012. Crown Prince Naif died in Geneva, Switzerland. His body was flown to Jeddah. Crown Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, was laid to rest in Al-Adl cemetery 18 June 2012.