Saudi Arabian Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir
By John Greenya
Adel al-Jubeir doesn’t get the easy jobs. But the apparent ease with which he handles them suggests that the still-new Saudi Arabian ambassador, having shown he can operate in the spotlight, is equally effective and relaxed away from the glare in his new role as his country’s point man in Washington.
When it was learned that 15 of the 19 terrorists responsible for 9/11 were Saudi Arabian nationals, al-Jubeir, then-foreign affairs advisor to the then-Crown Prince, now King Abdullah, had the unenviable job of convincing Americans that their best friends in the Middle East had not turned against them. Almost overnight, he seemed to be everywhere, being interviewed on television by Charlie Rose and then Wolf Blitzer, among others, and giving interviews to the leading print media.
