Turki bin Faisal Al Saud (Arabic: تركي بن فيصل آل سعود, romanized: Turkī ibn Fayṣal Āl Su'ūd;, commonly known as Turki Al-Faisal, born 15 February 1945) is a Saudi prince and former government official who served as the head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency from 1979 to 2001.

[9] He graduated in the class of 1968 (alongside future U.S. President Bill Clinton) of Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

[10] Turki claimed that in the months before the September 11 attacks, his intelligence agency knew that something alarming was being planned: "In the summer of 2001, I took one of the warnings about something spectacular about to happen to the Americans, British, French, and Arabs.

[citation needed] A continued connection to bin Laden was falsely claimed by Paris Match magazine.

In December 2004, Turki accepted substantial libel damages and an apology from Paris Match over claims he himself was linked to the 11 September attacks.

[29] In July 2005, it was announced that Prince Turki would succeed Bandar bin Sultan as Saudi ambassador to the United States.

Turki advocated that the United States engage in direct talks with Iran but other high-ranking Saudi officials, including Turki's predecessor as ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, supported military action to halt Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

[26] He argued that the Palestinian-Israeli issue, not Iran, was more important for the United States and called on the Bush Administration to revive the peace process.

[22] On the other hand, there were internal disputes over Saudi Arabia's Iraq policy, leading to tensions between Prince Turki and senior members of the royal family.

[8] As chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Prince Turki compared energy independence in American politics to baby-kissing.

"[36] In an interview on Saudi TV on 5 November 2001, Turki argued "The religious edicts issued by [bin Laden] are the main evidence [for his guilt] because they call for attacking American soldiers and civilians.

[38] He seemed to want Afghan people to handle their own problems and believed that the U.S. would continue to experience resistance as long as it stayed in Afghanistan.

[23] On Iran, Prince Turki warned of its growing influence in Lebanon as "foreign hands manipulating strings.

"[39] Asked what he thought would be the consequences of an Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, Prince Turki responded, "Calamitous ... cataclysmic, not just catastrophic.

He also believes Iranian actions have provoked worldwide opposition but at the same time suggests that Iran's nuclear program is being singled out.

[44] Prince Turki stated that Yemen has become a sanctuary for extremists as refugees flee the conflict into the Kingdom's borders.

[39] In a Financial Times editorial in January 2009, he was critical of American foreign policy toward Palestinians and accused the U.S. of complicity in the deaths of Gazans.

[47] He opined that "neocon advisers, American conservatives and Zionist extremists promoted policies that harmed the peace process," describing both Democrats and Republicans as strong supporters of Israel.

In response to Ayalon's comment that Saudi Arabia had not "given a penny" to the Palestinian Authority, Prince Turki claimed that it had given more than $500 million over the past five years.

[49] In the World Economic Forum at Davos in January 2011, he called for a Middle East without WMDs and stated "the elephant in the room is Israel.

[51] On 21 August 2020, in an apparent response to President Donald Trump, who said he expected Saudi Arabia to join the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Prince Turki wrote that the price for normalizing relations with Israel is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

He added that any Arab country that wants to follow the UAE's footsteps should demand a higher price for peace from Israel in the future.

[55] Prince Turki claimed the documents "are a hodgepodge of selectivity, inaccuracy, agenda pursuit, and downright disinformation.

[58] In late March 2011, he argued that elections for membership to the Saudi Shoura Council (the national majlis) should be realized and warned of a "failure in the Kingdom's job market".

"[60] Prince Turki has been linked to several large fund transfers to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is on trial in Malaysia for various offences in the multi-billion dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

[70] His daughter Princess Noura is assistant to vice chairman of the board of trustees and general supervisor of Effat University and Dar Al Hanan School.

[74] Prince Turki has problems resulting from the carbon-monoxide poisoning he suffered when he stayed in a camper van on a desert trip in the mid-1980s.

[78] Prince Turki has published articles in various media outlets, including the one entitled How to End Syria's Horror dated 2013.