Newly appointed Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (Photo: Reuters)
Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz announced Wednesday a royal decree replacing his successor and half-brother, Prince Moqren Bin Abdulaziz, with his nephew, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, and appointed his son Mohamed Bin Salman as Nayef's deputy crown prince.
The major reshuffling also replaced veteran Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, 75, with 53-year-old US-educated Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir.
Who is Adel Al-Jubeir?
Al-Jubeir was born in 1962. He received his elementary education in Germany while his father, Ahmed Mohamed Al-Jubeir, served as culture attaché of the Saudi embassy in Bonn.
Al-Jubeir finished his higher education in the US. He obtained a BA in political science and economics from the University of North Texas in 1982.
In 1984 he earned an MA in international relations from Georgetown University.
Since 1987, Al-Jubeir worked in the Saudi diplomatic service in Washington.
Al-Jubeir was part of the team that established the Joint Information Bureau at Dhahran during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991, according to his biography on the website of the Saudi embassy in Washington.
In 1991, as part of his diplomatic responsibilities, he took part in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) delegation at the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference.
In 2000, Al-Jubeir was appointed as director of Saudi Information and Congressional Affairs in Washington DC.
In 2005, the late King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz appointed Al-Jubeir advisor to the royal court.
From 27 February 2007, Al-Jubeir served as Saudi ambassador to the US.
Adel Al-Jubeir also received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from the University of North Texas.
He speaks Arabic, English and German fluently, according to his auto-biography.
The Washington Post reported in October 2011 that Iranian officials plotted an assassination attempt on the life of the Saudi ambassador.
The paper described Al-Jubeir as a diplomat spreading a message of friendship from Saudi Arabia in the US, especially after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC.
"Jubeir has spent most of the past two decades working to strengthen bonds between the two nations," the Post said.
The US Justice Department officially accused two Iranians of carrying out the assassination plot at the order of some members of the Iranian government.
One of the two men, who was arrested on 27 September 2011, claimed officials in the Iranian government orchestrated the plot. The Iranian government officially denied all allegations.
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