Adel A. Al-Jubeir, who was appointed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman as the new foreign minister in place of Prince Saud Al-Faisal, is known as a suave diplomat.

That his star was shining was evident when he addressed several press conferences in the run-up to Operation Decisive Storm led by Saudi Arabia against the Houthis recently. He made a compelling case about the threat to the world from Iran.

He was born on Feb. 1, 1962, in Majmaa, Riyadh Province, and attended schools in the Kingdom, Germany, Yemen, Lebanon and the US. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in political science and economics from the University of North Texas in 1982, and a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 1984.

Al-Jubeir joined the Saudi Embassy in the US in 1986 and was appointed the Kingdom’s ambassador to the US in 2007, succeeding Turki Al-Faisal. In 1987, Al-Jubeir was appointed to the Saudi diplomatic service and posted to Washington where he served as special assistant to the ambassador. In 1990-91, he was part of the Saudi team that established the Joint Information Bureau at Dhahran during Operation Desert Storm.

He was a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991, and a member of the Saudi delegation to the Multilateral Arms Control Talks in Washington in 1992. In December 1992, he was dispatched with the Saudi Armed Forces to Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope.

Al-Jubeir was appointed director of the Saudi Information and Congressional Affairs Office in Washington in 2000, and was named foreign affairs adviser in the crown prince’s court in the fall of 2000. In August 2005, the late King Abdullah appointed Al-Jubeir to the position of adviser at the royal court.

Al-Jubeir was Visiting Diplomatic Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York from 1994 to 1995. He has lectured at universities and academic institutions in the US and appeared frequently in the media. He is fluent in Arabic, English and German.

His popularity led Iran to hatch an assassination plot against him with the help of two Iranian nationals, Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of the Quds Force. The devious plot was thwarted by the US security officials.