Ali Alireza

Ali Abdallah Alireza's association with the United States began as a student at the University of California, Berkeley. In April 1945, King Abdulaziz instructed the young Saudi to interrupt his studies and join Prince Faisal's delegation to the United Nations founding conference in nearby San Francisco. Two years later he accompanied Crown Prince Saud to the White House, appearing beside Saudi minister Assad al-Faqih in a photograph of the royal party leaving its meeting with President Truman. ^{1, 2}

Alireza returned as ambassador from 1975 to 1979. Oil prices were a central subject of his direct exchanges with President Gerald Ford. In November 1976, Ford asked him to convey American fears that an OPEC price increase would undermine economic recovery. Alireza defended Saudi efforts to limit the increase while preserving OPEC unity, urged Washington to press other producers, and raised the burden of inflation in imported industrial goods. Their conversation also covered Lebanon and the two governments' opposition to Soviet influence. ^{3, 4}