Former Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has died, two months after he retired following 40 years in the job.
A statement from the Royal Court on Thursday said Prince Saud, who was born in 1940, died in the United States. No cause was given for his death, but he had faced many health problems.
Prince Saud, who was appointed in 1975, was the world's longest serving foreign minister when he was replaced on April 29 by Adel al-Jubeir, the then ambassador to Washington.
His tenure saw Israel invade Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and 2006, the eruption of Palestinian intifadas in 1987 and 2000, Iraq's invasions of Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990, and the occupation of Iraq by a US-led coalition in 2003.
Prince Saud served under four Saudi kings, advancing the kingdom's foreign policy, especially after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.
Prince Saud, a son of King Faisal, was born in Taif near Mecca, where in 1989 he helped negotiate the agreement that ended Lebanon's 15-year civil war.
A degree at Princeton in the 1960s was followed by years at the Petroleum Ministry, where he was taken under the wing of his father's canny and charismatic oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani.
His career as a diplomat began traumatically: the new King Khaled named him as foreign minister following the assassination of Prince Saud's father Faisal, who had retained the foreign affairs portfolio after being made king in 1962.
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