After 10 active and eventful years as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the Court of St. James, Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi is leaving London to return to a senior government position in Riyadh. He has certainly achieved a special standing during his time in Britain — in diplomacy, with the media and in literary circles, and in the public eye too.
The very closeness of Britain’s long-standing and historic connections with Saudi Arabia — at the political level, in the business and investment world, through cooperation in education and in the field of defense, and through the presence of large expatriate communities in both countries — gives the Kingdom’s ambassador in London a crucially important role in keeping these links in good shape, and in handling the differences that inevitably arise from time to time in a relationship of such depth and importance. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi has seen his share of such problems. At the same time he has succeeded in giving new prominence and clarity to Saudi Arabia’s image in this country. Arriving in London in the aftermath of the Kuwait crisis, and with the advantage of his own familiarity with the British and their ways and a fluent command of the English language and its idiom, the result of his period of study for a doctorate in literature at London University, he has done much to put across a fuller and more positive picture of his country, its policies and its culture. His warm and perceptive approach has earned him the respect and the friendship of a wide circle within Britain, among ministers and in Parliament as well as with the media and in the business community too. His ready wit and sparking oratory have earned him a place among the most popular speakers at public functions connected with the Arab world. Only he could have written an engaging, if coded, account of his experience of ministerial office in Riyadh, with an appeal for British readers through the humorous title of "Yes, (Saudi) Minister," taken from a popular TV series. These cultured attributes brought him close to a coveted appointment as director of UNESCO.
Nor has Ghazi Al-Gosaibi ducked controversy; indeed at times he has stimulated it. His own firm views on a variety of sensitive events affecting Britain and its attitude toward the Kingdom have been aired in published monographs, on topics ranging from the Saudi position on justice and human rights to the loss of Princess Diana. In his own words he came in with a "splash", when he inadvertently stepped into a pool shortly after his arrival. As a poet himself, Ghazi Al-Gosaibi would accept that, to paraphrase the lines of T.S. Eliot, he is certainly not going out with a "whimper". His recent poem dedicated to a destructive act of self-sacrifice on the part of a young Palestinian girl, followed by a characteristically spirited interview in The Spectator magazine, have again courted controversy.
Plain speaking is not customary among diplomats. Coming from Ghazi Al-Gosaibi however it has helped toward a clearer understanding of Saudi Arabia. Inevitably some sections of the British media have sought to speculate on his recall to Riyadh as a sign of reproof. This is far from the truth; he goes to a key ministerial appointment within the Kingdom’s program of economic reform, in which the reorganization of water resources is crucial to future development. He and his wife will be much missed by their many friends and contacts in Britain.
(Sir Alan Munro is former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia.)
