Saudi Arabia's veteran envoy to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former fighter pilot who built close ties to several US presidents, has resigned for personal reasons, the Saudi government said on Wednesday. Bandar was a central figure in efforts to rescue Saudi-US relations from a crisis triggered by the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities which were carried out by mainly Saudi hijackers.
But the 56-year-old prince has been out of the spotlight for several months and diplomats and officials said he made no secret of his wish to step down after two decades as one of the most high-profile and influential diplomats in Washington.
A foreign ministry statement said Prince Bandar had appealed to King Fahd to relieve him of his duties "for private reasons".
The monarch accepted his resignation and will nominate former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, currently ambassador to London, to replace him, the ministry said.
The prince earned the nickname "Bandar Bush" because of his close friendship with President George Bush and later with his son, President George W. Bush.
That bond led to accusations last year that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, had used its influence to interfere in domestic US politics.
Bandar denied he had promised that Saudi Arabia would engineer a fall in world oil prices in time for George W. Bush's re-election campaign, and said his country was happy to work with any US administration.
"We like American presidents and we work with them and we have always been bipartisan," he said.
Bandar, son of Saudi Arabia's powerful Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, trained as a pilot in the United States and Britain.
Before his diplomatic appointment he helped overcome resistance from some US legislators over sales of jets and early warning radar systems to the kingdom.
He was also involved in cease-fire negotiations in the Lebanese civil war and helped mediate between Libya, Britain and the United States to resolve a decade-long stand-off over the Lockerbie airliner bombing.
But the biggest challenge of his lengthy assignment was to heal the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Bandar defended his country, birthplace of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, against charges that its Wahhabi school of Islam promoted anti-Western hostility and fostered militancy.