guardian.co.uk,
Jo Adetunji and agencies, Saturday 16 June 2012
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| Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud died in Geneva. Photograph: Fahad Shadeed/Reuters |
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud has died in Switzerland
following an illness.
Nayef, 78,
who was next in line to the Saudi throne, died in hospital in Geneva on
Saturday, according to Saudi state television.
The prince
had been interior minister in the kingdom since 1975 and deputy prime minister.
He spearheaded the country's post-September 11 crackdown on al-Qaida. He rose
to the position of crown prince after the death of his elder brother, Crown
Prince Sultan, in October last year.
The prince
had been ill for some months and had been in Switzerland since May for
treatment. He had undergone medical tests in the US and although there had been
speculation that he had cancer, this has never been officially confirmed.
Earlier
this month, Nayef's brother and deputy interior minister, Prince Ahmed, told
al-Watan newspaper that Nayef was "well and in good health … and he will
soon return" to Saudi Arabia.
Nayef was
considered to be more conservative and less keen on reform than his uncle, the
current King Abdullah. However, in 2001, he supported a move to issue women in
the kingdom with their own identity cards – previously they could only be
registered on the card of a father or husband.
Nayef was
initially criticised for shifting the blame from the country following the
September 11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. It was also reported that he would be listed, along with other members of the royal family, in a lawsuit filed by the victims of the attacks, over claims
that family members were engaged in payoffs to al-Qaida, but his name was later
to be removed due to diplomatic immunity.
In February
2002 there came a change of heart. Under pressure from the US and attacks by
Islamist militants within the kingdom – including a declaration from al-Qaida
of its aim to overthrow the Saudi royal family – Nayef became the first Saudi
official to publicly confirm that Saudi nationals were involved in the US
attacks.
He was
later responsible for a successful crackdown of radicals and al-Qaida militants
in Saudi Arabia, who were responsible for a wave of bloody attacks in the
country between 2003 and 2006. His campaign forced many to flee to neighbouring
Yemen.
Nayef had
also pushed for a more hardline stance towards Iran.
His uncle
King Abdullah said in a statement that funeral prayers would be held for the
prince after sunset on Sunday, before a traditional burial. Television channel
Al Arabiya reported that his funeral would be held in a mosque in the holy city
of Mecca.
The
succession is likely to pass to another son of the former king, possibly
Nayef's younger brother, Prince Salman, the governor of Riyadh.
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