VOL. XL

No. 37

15-September-1997

SAUDI ARABIA

Former Saudi Oil Minister Tariki Dies

Mr. Abd Allah al-Tariki, Saudi Arabia's first oil minister and one of the founders ofOPEC, died in Cairo on 7 September at the age of 79, after a long illness. His body wastaken to Saudi Arabia for burial. He had lived in Cairo for the last decade.

Mr. Tariki, one of the founders of OPEC in 1960, favored using oil as a weapon in theArab-Israeli conflict and upheld the slogan "Arab oil for the Arabs." Born in1918...