and his wife
Pat Nixon in Washington, D.C., 27 May 1971 As king, Faisal employed
Islam as one of Saudi Arabia's foreign policy tools which differentiated him from King Abdulaziz and King Saud. He signed an agreement with
Abdel-Halim Mahmoud, the Egyptian
Grand Imam of al-Azhar, to combat Communism in 1971 during the presidency of Anwar Sadat.
Palestinian cause (right) at the
1970 Arab League summit After he became
foreign minister, Prince Faisal was recognized for his support for the Palestinian cause. His involvement with the Palestinian cause began in 1938, when he represented his father in the London Conference on the Palestine issue, where he delivered an important address opposing the partition plan. He wrote a message to the Saudi people in 1948 in which he discussed the Palestinian struggle and the suffering of the Palestinian people. The Saudi delegation was led by Faisal and his brother Khalid at the
St. James Palace Conference, which Britain called for, inviting representatives of the Arabs of Palestine, neighboring Arab states, and the
Jewish Agency to consult with the British government in London on the partition of Palestine. The conference began on 7 February 1939 and ended on 17 March 1939, at St. James's Palace in London. In light of the Woodhead Commission's report, both the Arabs and the British government rejected the partition plan as impractical. The British government issued a policy statement rejecting partition as impracticable due to "political, administrative, and financial difficulties." The conference was also unable to resolve the issue of Jewish immigration to Palestine, which had become more common following
Nazi Germany's annexation of all of
Czechoslovakia. Faisal was a global advocate for Palestinian rights, as evidenced by one of his speeches to the United Nations in 1963, in which he claimed that the Palestinian crisis is the only thing that has ruined Arab peace since the
UN resolution to partition Palestine. One of his policies on this issue was to refuse to recognize Israel, to unite Arab efforts while leaving differences aside, to donate money and fight, to establish a body representing Palestinians, and to involve Muslims in the defense of the cause. In his speech on 22 September 1947 to the United Nations, Faisal said:
Arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque Between 23 and 25 September 1969, Faisal convened a conference in
Rabat, Morocco, to discuss the
arson attack on the
Al Aqsa Mosque that had occurred a month earlier. The leaders of 25 Muslim states attended and the conference called for Israel to give up territory conquered in 1967. The conference also set up the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and pledged its support for the Palestinians.
North Yemen Civil War in Cairo, 18 December 1969|240x240px The
North Yemen Civil War raged between loyalists of the
Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and those of the
Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The Yemeni republic was created after revolutionary republicans headed by the army under
Abdullah al-Sallal staged a coup against
Imam Muhammad al-Badr. As a result, the Imam fled to the
Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, where he rallied backing from northern Shia tribes to reclaim control, sparking a full-fledged civil war. Saudi Arabia backed al-Badr and his royalist followers, while Egypt under the
United Arab Republic backed the Yemeni republicans. As a result, Saudi and Egyptian relations were strained. In September 1964, Nasser and Faisal met in
Alexandria, Egypt, at the Arab summit. At the time, Egypt had 40,000 troops in Yemen, with 10,000 civilians killed. The two leaders committed in their formal declaration to completely cooperate in resolving current disagreements between Yemen's diverse factions, collaborate in preventing armed clashes in Yemen, and to reach a peaceful conclusion. The declaration was widely praised in the Arab world, and Washington praised it as a "statesmanlike action" and a "major step toward eventual peaceful resolution of the long civil war." At Alexandria's airport, Nasser and Faisal exchanged heartfelt embraces and referred to each other as "brother." Faisal said he was leaving Egypt "with my heart brimming with love for President Nasser." Gamal Abdel Nasser traveled to Jeddah on the Freedom ship in August 1965, marking his first visit to Saudi Arabia since 1954, when he came to perform Hajj. Faisal greeted Nasser warmly when he arrived. Despite their differences, the two countries' relations were restored. Both men came to an agreement on the following (known as the Jeddah Agreement) within 48 hours: • The gradual withdrawal of Egyptian forces from Yemen within ten months Judge Abd al-Rahman al-Iryani led the republican delegation, while Ahmed Muhammad al-Shami, the royalists' foreign minister, led the royal delegation. The conflicting parties, however, were unable to strike a compromise, which resulted in further bloodshed between republicans and royalists. Furthermore, at the
Khartoum Conference, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait agreed to establish a fund worth $378 million to be distributed among countries affected by the June 1967 War. Saudi Arabia would contribute $140 million. The price of oil had risen about 300 percent by the conclusion of the embargo in March 1974, from US to nearly globally; US prices were much higher. The embargo triggered an oil crisis, or "shock", with numerous short- and long-term implications for world politics and the economy. This was regarded as the defining act of Faisal's career, and gained him lasting prestige among many
Arabs and Muslims worldwide. In 1974 Faisal was named
Time magazine's
Man of the Year, and the financial windfall generated by the crisis fueled the economic boom that occurred in Saudi Arabia after his death. The new oil revenue also allowed Faisal to greatly increase the aid and subsidies begun following the 1967
Six-Day War to Egypt, Syria, and the
Palestine Liberation Organization. It is a commonly held belief in Saudi Arabia, and the wider
Arab world, that Faisal's oil embargo was the real cause of his assassination, via a Western conspiracy.{{cite web ==Personal life==