Last week the deceptively soft-spoken Yamani, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Affairs, had confirmed his position as the strongman of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and one of the most powerful men in the world. It was Yamani who fathered Arab oil strategy seven years ago by organizing the Arab producing states into a cohesive bargaining bloc. With that stroke, Yamani turned oil into a global political weapon. Late last month, through cajolery, hard talk and a stagey 11th-hour walkout, Yamani managed to convince price hawks in OPEC (notably Iran) that a proposed oil price boost should be held to a modest 10 percent.
A Saudi by birth and a Westerner by education, Sheikh Yamani is considered the most pro-American and responsible of the oil brokers. "He is a man of vision," says one Arab oil analyst. "He thinks ahead and looks for long-term effects."
The son of a judge, Yamani was born 45 years ago in Taif, a mountain city which shelters summering Saudi monarchs. He studied law at Cairo University and later Harvard, went home to join the oil ministry, and began running it in 1962. "He knows the business better than some oil men themselves," says one American executive.
An urbane man, Yamani is as comfortable in a Pierre Cardin suit and crocodile shoes as he is in the Saudi thobe robe and sandals. Like many rich Arabs, he is not above indulging his exotic eccentricities—taking Cadillac safaris into the desert or receiving businessmen while lounging in a bubble bath.
The sheikh's wealth allows him to keep six homes—three in his country, and one in Beirut, Switzerland and London. This year he took a 22-year-old bride after divorcing his first wife of some 20 years who gave him two girls and a boy ages 14 to 19.
His politics are conservative and nationalist. He admires U.S. business style and technology, but not its support of Israel. In his spare time, he writes Arabic poetry and pores over his 50 books on astrology. He confesses he will advise his son to choose his wife by her astrological chart. "I believe the stars have an influence on human behavior," he says. "I don't use astrology for negotiating, but I think in life, you know people better if you know their horoscopes."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
