Prince Saud was appointed to his post in 1975 and was reportedly the world’s longest-serving foreign minister.

Former Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal Saturday said in a letter that he “will stay as a loyal servant” after a cable by King Salman bin Abdulaziz claimed that letting him go as a long-running minister of foreign affairs “was one of the most difficult and hard matters.”

Prince Saud said “the cable from the king shows his generosity and genuine substance more than what my humbled self could deserve and larger than my efforts exerted during my tenure as foreign minister.”

Before concluding his letter, Prince Saud, who worked as the kingdom’s top diplomat for four decades, offered his “appreciation” and “gratitude” to “all of my colleagues in the foreign ministry.”

In the cable, the king said he only answered Prince Saud’s request to be relieved of his duties after “repeated insistence,” adding that the former foreign minister would be “close to him and to the work Prince Saud al-Faisal loved and worked hard for.”

King Salman acknowledged that Prince Saud’s request included feelings of “sincere loyalty to his religion, king and homeland.”

Prince Saud was appointed to his post in 1975 and was reportedly the world’s longest-serving foreign minister.

In his tenure, he witnessed the Israeli invasions of Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and 2006, the Palestinian intifadas that erupted in 1987 and 2000, Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990, and the U.S.-led coalition’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.

[wpResize]

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