On Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee, a reminder of special bonds between Saudi and British royals

Queen Elizabeth II with Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal in 1967. (AFP/File)
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Updated 03 June 2022
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On Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee, a reminder of special bonds between Saudi and British royals

  • Cables sent by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bespeak a friendship dating back decades
  • Since Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952, there have been four state visits to Britain by Saudi monarchs

LONDON: As congratulations flooded into London this week from heads of state around the world, two messages in particular served as reminders of the special relationship that has flourished between the Saudi and British royal families throughout the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Behind the formality of the cables sent by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wishing her “sincere felicitations and best health and happiness” on the occasion of her platinum jubilee, is a history of friendship dating back to the earliest days of her reign, which began on Feb. 6, 1952.

 

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That day, her father King George VI died while the 25-year-old Elizabeth and her husband Philip, duke of Edinburgh, were in Kenya on a tour of Africa.

Having left England a princess, she flew home in mourning as Queen Elizabeth II. Her coronation took place on June 2 the following year.

Among the guests at the coronation were members of four royal families from the Gulf: The rulers or their representatives of the then-British protectorates of Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, and Prince Fahd bin Abdulaziz, representing the 78-year-old King Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founder and first monarch, who had only five months left to live.

The bonds between the Saudi and British monarchies cannot be measured by the frequency of formal occasions alone, although an examination of the record of state visits held by Buckingham Palace reveals an illuminating distinction.

Since the queen succeeded her father, there have been no fewer than four state visits to Britain by Saudi monarchs, a number matched by only four other countries, including the UK’s near-neighbors France and Germany.

The first to travel to London was King Faisal, greeted with all the pomp and ceremony of a full British state welcome at the start of his eight-day visit in May 1967.




Queen Elizabeth II speaks with Emirati Minister of State Reem al-Hashemi during a visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi on Nov.24, 2010. (WAM via AFP)

Met by the queen, members of the British royal family and leading politicians — including then-Prime Minister Harold Wilson — King Faisal rode to Buckingham Palace with Elizabeth and Philip in an open horse-drawn state carriage, drawn through London streets lined with cheering crowds.

During a busy eight-day schedule, the king found time to visit and pray at London’s Islamic Cultural Centre.




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with Saudi Arabia’s King Khaled in 1981. (AFP/Getty Images)

His son Prince Bandar, who that year graduated from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, deputized for his father on a visit to inspect English Electric Lightning fighter jets being readied for shipment to Saudi Arabia. Later, the prince would fly Lightnings as a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force.

King Faisal was followed on state visits to Britain by his successors King Khaled in 1981, King Fahd in 1987 and King Abdullah in 2007. 




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd in 1987. (AFP/Getty Images)

In February 1979, traveling on board the supersonic jet Concorde, Queen Elizabeth visited Riyadh and Dhahran during a Gulf tour that also took her to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman.

In Saudi Arabia, she was hosted by King Khaled and enjoyed a series of events, including a desert picnic and a state dinner at Maathar Palace in Riyadh.




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with King Hussein of Jordan in 1955. (AFP/Getty Images)

In return, she and her husband hosted a dinner for the Saudi royal family on board Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia.

Poignantly, Britannia would return to the Gulf one last time, in January 1997, during its last tour before the royal yacht was decommissioned in December that year.

However, the relationship between the two royal families has not been limited to the great occasions of state.




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 2010. (AFP/Getty Images)

Analysis of the regular Court Circular published by Buckingham Palace shows that members of Britain’s royal family met with Gulf monarchs more than 200 times between 2011 and 2021 alone — equivalent to once a fortnight. Forty of these informal meetings were with members of the House of Saud.

Most recently, in March 2018, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had a private audience as well as lunch with the queen at Buckingham Palace. 




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018. (AFP/Getty Images)

Later, he dined with the prince of Wales and the duke of Cambridge during a visit to the UK that included meetings with then-Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Serious topics, such as trade and defense agreements, are often the subjects of such meetings. But good-natured fun, rather than stiff formality, is frequently the hallmark of private gatherings between the royal families, as Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2006, would later recall.

In 2003, Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s future king, was a guest of the queen at Balmoral Castle, her estate in Scotland.




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in 2007. (AFP/Getty Images)

It was his first visit to Balmoral and, happily accepting an invitation to be taken on a tour of the large estate, he climbed into the passenger seat of a Land Rover, only to discover that his driver and guide was to be the queen herself.

Having served during the Second World War as an army driver, she has always driven herself at Balmoral, where locals are used to seeing her out and about behind the wheel of one of her beloved Land Rovers.

She is also known for having great fun at the expense of guests as she hurtles one of the vehicles along the narrow lanes and across the rugged terrain of the estate.




Queen Elizabeth (2nd R) and Prince Philip (L) receive Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (R) and his wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser at Windsor Castle on Oct. 26, 2010. (AFP)

By Sir Sherard’s account, Prince Abdullah took the impromptu fairground ride well, although at one point, “through his interpreter,” he felt obliged to “implore the queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead.”

Aside from the commonality of their royalty, the queen and the monarchs of the Gulf have always bonded over their mutual love of horses, a shared interest that dates back to at least 1937, when Elizabeth was an 11-year-old princess.

To mark the occasion of her father’s coronation that year, King Abdulaziz presented King George VI with an Arabian mare.

A life-size bronze statue of the horse, Turfa, was unveiled in 2020 at the Arabian Horse Museum in Diriyah, where it has pride of place today.

At the time of the unveiling, Richard Oppenheim, then-Britain’s deputy ambassador to Saudi Arabia, highlighted how the two royal families had always bonded over this common interest.

“The queen has many horses, and King Salman and the Saudi royal family also have a long-held love of horses,” he said.

The queen also shares that love with Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and vice president of the UAE, who owns the internationally renowned Godolphin horse-racing stables and stud farm in Newmarket, the home of British horse racing.




Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum in 2010. (AFP/Getty Images)

The two have often been seen together at great events on the horse-racing calendar, such as the annual five-day Royal Ascot meeting, regarded as the jewel in the crown of the British social season, which this year runs from June 14-18.

Team Godolphin has had several winners at Royal Ascot, where the queen’s horses have won over 70 races since her coronation.




Britain's Queen Elizabeth with the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah. (AFP)

This weekend, as flags fly from homes and public buildings, thousands of events are taking place across Britain to mark her platinum jubilee, including street parties; the traditional Trooping the Colour at the Horse Guards Parade; gun salutes; a fly-past by the Royal Air Force, watched by the queen from the balcony of Buckingham Palace; and the lighting of more than 3,000 beacons nationwide.

At the age of 96, Elizabeth — queen of the UK and the Commonwealth, and monarch to more than 150 million people — has reached a royal milestone rare not only in Britain, but across the world.

By Friday, she will have reigned for 70 years and 117 days, putting her within nine days of becoming the second-longest-serving monarch in world history.

Bhumibol Adulyadej, king of Thailand from 1946 until his death in 2016 at the age of 88, ruled for 70 years and 126 days.

Only Louis XIV of France was on the throne for longer, ruling between 1643 and 1715, for 72 years and 110 days.

The secret to Elizabeth’s longevity, perhaps, lies in the words of the British national anthem “God Save the Queen,” which will be sung heartily at events across the UK this weekend: “Long live our noble queen … Happy and glorious, long to reign over us, God save the queen.”

 


Yemen missile launched toward Israel ‘most likely’ intercepted, Israeli army says

Updated 6 sec ago
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Yemen missile launched toward Israel ‘most likely’ intercepted, Israeli army says

The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile launched from Yemen toward Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted.”
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement — which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza — with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.


Sudan’s military accepts UN proposal of a weeklong ceasefire in El Fasher for aid distribution

Updated 39 min 40 sec ago
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Sudan’s military accepts UN proposal of a weeklong ceasefire in El Fasher for aid distribution

  • Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the rival RSF escalated into battles
  • The war has also driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine

CAIRO: Sudan’s military agreed to a proposal from the United Nations for a weeklong ceasefire in El Fasher to facilitate UN aid efforts to the area, the army said Friday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him for the humanitarian truce in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, to allow aid delivery.

Burhan agreed to the proposal and stressed the importance of implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions, but it’s unknown whether the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces would agree and comply with the ceasefire.

“We are making contacts with both sides with that objective, and that was the fundamental reason for that phone contact. We have a dramatic situation in El Fasher,” Guterres told reporters on Friday.

No further details were revealed about the specifics of the ceasefire, including when it could go into effect.

Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the rival RSF escalated into battles in the capital, Khartoum, and spread across the country, killing more than 20,000 people.

The war has also driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine. UNICEF said earlier this year that an estimated 61,800 children have been internally displaced since the war began.

Guterres said on Friday that a humanitarian truce is needed for effective aid distribution, and it must be agreed upon several days in advance to prepare for a large-scale delivery in the El Fasher area, which has seen repeated waves of violence recently.

El-Fasher, more than 800 kilometers southwest of Khartoum, is under the control of the military. The RSF has been trying to capture El Fasher for a year to solidify its control over the entire Darfur region. The paramilitary’s attempts included launching repeated attacks on the city and two major famine-stricken displacement camps on its outskirts.


Trump hopeful for Gaza ceasefire, possibly ‘next week’

Updated 28 June 2025
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Trump hopeful for Gaza ceasefire, possibly ‘next week’

  • United Nations officials on Friday said the GHF system was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was “aligning itself with Hamas”

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump voiced optimism Friday about a new ceasefire in Gaza, as criticism grew over mounting civilian deaths at Israeli-backed food distribution centers in the territory.
Asked by reporters how close a ceasefire was between Israel and Hamas, Trump said: “We think within the next week, we’re going to get a ceasefire.”
The United States brokered a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in the waning days of former president Joe Biden’s administration, with support from Trump’s incoming team.
Israel broke the ceasefire in March, launching new devastating attacks on Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel also stopped all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months, drawing warnings of famine.
Israel has since allowed a resumption of food through the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which involves US security contractors with Israeli troops at the periphery.
United Nations officials on Friday said the GHF system was leading to mass killings of people seeking aid, drawing accusations from Israel that the UN was “aligning itself with Hamas.”
Eyewitnesses and local officials have reported repeated killings of Palestinians at distribution centers over recent weeks in the war-stricken territory, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants.
The Israeli military has denied targeting people and GHF has denied any deadly incidents were linked to its sites.
But following weeks of reports, UN officials and other aid providers on Friday denounced what they said was a wave of killings of hungry people seeking aid.
“The new aid distribution system has become a killing field,” with people “shot at while trying to access food for themselves and their families,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian affairs (UNWRA).
“This abomination must end through a return to humanitarian deliveries from the UN including @UNRWA,” he wrote on X.
The health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies.
The country’s civil defense agency has also repeatedly reported people being killed while seeking aid.
“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“The search for food must never be a death sentence.”
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) branded the GHF relief effort “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.”

That drew an angry response from Israel, which said GHF had provided 46 million meals in Gaza.
“The UN is doing everything it can to oppose this effort. In doing so, the UN is aligning itself with Hamas, which is also trying to sabotage the GHF’s humanitarian operations,” the foreign ministry said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a report in left-leaning daily Haaretz that military commanders had ordered troops to shoot at crowds near aid distribution sites to disperse them even when they posed no threat.
Haaretz said the military advocate general, the army’s top legal authority, had instructed the military to investigate “suspected war crimes” at aid sites.
The Israeli military declined to comment to AFP on the claim.
Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz that their country “absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels” and “malicious falsehoods” in the Haaretz article.

Gaza’s civil defense agency told AFP 80 Palestinians had been killed on Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory, including 10 who were waiting for aid.
The Israeli military told AFP it was looking into the incidents, and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by GHF, and one more in a separate incident in the center of the territory, where the army denied shooting “at all.”
Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said.
Elsewhere, eight people were killed “after an Israeli air strike hit Osama Bin Zaid School, which was housing displaced persons” in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said they shelled an Israeli vehicle east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Friday.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas-ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they attacked Israeli soldiers in at least two other locations near Khan Yunis in coordination with the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,331 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
 

 


Child laborers among 19 dead in Egypt road accident: state media

Updated 46 min 1 sec ago
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Child laborers among 19 dead in Egypt road accident: state media

  • Most of the victims were teenage girls working as day laborers

CAIRO: A road accident in northern Egypt killed 19 people on Friday, most of them teenage girls working as day laborers, state media reported.

A truck collided with the minibus carrying the laborers to their place of work from their home village of Kafr Al-Sanabsa in the Nile Delta, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Cairo, state-owned newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm reported.

According to a list of the names and ages of the dead published by another state-owned daily, Al-Ahram, most of the workers were teenagers — two of them just 14.

Egyptian media dubbed the girls “martyrs for their daily bread.”

Road accidents are common in Egypt, where traffic rules are unevenly enforced and many roads are in poor repair.

Accidents often involve underage laborers traveling to work in overcrowded minibuses in rural areas.

At least 1.3 million minors are engaged in some form of child labor in Egypt, according to official figures.


UN peacekeeping chief ‘very, very worried’ about future of Lebanon-Israel ceasefire deal if UNIFIL withdraws

Updated 28 June 2025
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UN peacekeeping chief ‘very, very worried’ about future of Lebanon-Israel ceasefire deal if UNIFIL withdraws

  • Jean Pierre Lacroix tells Arab News Resolution 1701, governing peace between the nations, would be at risk if the UN Interim Force in Lebanon was no longer deployed
  • Lebanese authorities back UNIFIL and want its mandate extended, but the mission faces financial pressures and the Security Council will review it in August

NEW YORK CITY: The future of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which governs the ceasefire and peacekeeping framework between Lebanon and Israel, would be at risk without the continuing presence of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, the UN’s top peacekeeper warned on Thursday.

Jean Pierre Lacroix, the organization’s head of peacekeeping operations, expressed his deep concern during a press conference following visits to Lebanon and Syria. He told Arab News he would be “very, very worried” about the future of the resolution if UNIFIL was withdrawn.

“UNIFIL is not an end in itself, and UNIFIL is not something standalone,” he said. “It’s a tool for supporting implementation of Resolution 1701, so the two are inextricably linked.

“I would be very, very worried about the future of Resolution 1701 if there is no UNIFIL on the ground to support the implementation of that resolution.”

UNIFIL, established in 2006 to monitor the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel and prevent hostilities in Lebanon’s volatile southern border region, continues to play a crucial role in providing support for the Lebanese army presence in areas south of the Litani River.

The peacekeepers assist in tasks such as mine clearance and rehabilitation efforts, serve as liaisons between Lebanese and Israeli forces, and help with deconfliction efforts.

Despite progress in enforcing the provisions of the resolution, Lacroix said that violations persist and more work is needed to ensure it is fully implemented.

During his trip, Lacroix met senior Lebanese officials, including President Joseph Aoun, the prime minister, the speaker of the parliament, and the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. All of them, he said, reiterated the critical need for UNIFIL to maintain its presence in the country, and Lebanese authorities have formally asked the Security Council to extend the mission’s mandate.

However, UNIFIL faces severe financial constraints. Lacroix said contingency planning is underway amid liquidity shortfalls and uncertainties about the funding commitments of UN member states, particularly in light of potential US opposition to extension of the mandate.

“To the best of my knowledge, there is no final position expressed by Israel or the United States,” he said in response to reports of possible opposition to the continued deployment of UNIFIL. “But we expect consistency from member states; they give mandates and then are expected to pay on time and in full.”

Lacroix stressed that in the absence of UNIFIL, practical and symbolic support for Resolution 1701 would erode, potentially escalating tensions in a region where stability remains fragile.

“The interlocutors in Lebanon were concerned and expressed the need for UNIFIL’s presence to help mitigate and reduce tensions that remain quite high in the region,” he said.

The Security Council is scheduled to review UNIFIL’s mandate in August. The mission currently comprises about 10,000 troops from more than 40 countries.