The Diplomat
Princess Haifa al Mogrin has been appointed as Saudi Arabia’s new ambassador to Spain, replacing Azzam Abdulkarim Algain. For the first time, a woman will head the Saudi diplomatic representation in our country.
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA reported last week the appointment of Haifa al Mogrin, who, along with other new ambassadors, was sworn in by King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud at Riyadh’s Irqa Palace.
Haifa al Mogrin wrote on her social networking account X: “I extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to my lord, the Custodian of the Two Holy Places, and to His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, may God protect them, for the royal trust in appointing me as ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain. I pray to Almighty God for help and success in carrying out my work in a manner that achieves the aspirations of the wise leadership”.
The new ambassador, who will take up her post in the coming weeks, has a long career as a diplomat, having been appointed as Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, which is based in Paris. In this position, she has spent a period in which Saudi Arabia has been very active in promoting tourism in the country.
Previously, Haifa al Mogrin, who holds a BA in Economics from King Saud University in Riyadh and an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, worked at the Saudi Ministry of Economy and Planning, where she was Assistant Deputy Minister for Sustainable Development Affairs. She has also been responsible for coordinating her country’s participation in the G-20 and has managed the United Nations Development Programme in Riyadh.
The new ambassador arrives in Spain a few months after it became known that STC, the company owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, had acquired a 9.9% stake in Telefónica for 2.1 billion euros. This move led the Spanish government to announce that the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) would acquire 10% of the capital in order to prevent a company as strategic as Telefónica from being controlled from abroad.
