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After having served his country for over 50 years, Nizar bin Obaid Madani retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Jan. 7.

He joined the ministry in 1965 and served in various positions. He remained the minister of state for foreign affairs between 2005 and 2019. 

He began his diplomatic career as an attache, then proceeded to the Saudi Embassy in Washington in 1968 and became charge d’affaires.

Madani participated in many international conferences and was among ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ’s delegation at the UN, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. He was appointed a member of the Saudi Consultative Council, the Shoura Council, in 1993 and then reappointed in 1997.

He also chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Shoura Council and became a member of the Security Affairs Committee of the council.

He received a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Cairo University, a master’s degree in international relations, and a Ph.D. in international relations at the American University in Washington, DC.

Dr. Nizar is a prolific writer. His works have been published by the Diplomatic Studies Institute. Moreover, his latest book was a biography of Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the former Saudi foreign minister who was the longest-serving foreign minister in modern history. The biography was published in 2018 by King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. 

His autobiography was published in 2009. In his memoirs, he recorded the history of his diplomatic career.  Madani was born in 1941. He belongs to one of the prominent families of the city of Madinah. His father Prof. Obaid Madani, who died in 1976, was a prominent historian and poet who documented the history of Madinah in five volumes.