Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasel

Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasel has been Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative at the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva since 2016.

Al-Wasel, who has served as a professor at the King Abdul Aziz Military Academy and at Marshall University in Virginia, received a master’s degree in political science from Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University.

He also obtained a Ph.D. in political science and international relations.

He joined the Kingdom’s diplomatic service in 1999, working in the human rights office in the department of international organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He then served at the Saudi Embassy in Australia from 2001 to 2007.

Before taking up his post as ambassador of Saudi Arabia at the UN, Al-Wasel served as the Kingdom’s deputy ambassador to the UK from 2013.

Before that, he served for five years as head of the human rights office of the Saudi delegation to the UN in Geneva.

Speaking at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council in March, Al-Wasel reiterated the Kingdom’s support for the Palestinian cause at all political and economic levels, and defended the legitimate rights of Palestinians. He added that Saudi Arabia adheres to the Arab peace initiative proposed by the Kingdom and adopted by the Arab countries in 2002, which affirms the Palestinians’ right to obtain an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the return of refugees, and Israel’s withdrawal of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan Heights.