Saudi Arabia’s consul general in Houston was offered a rare, symbolic honor from the metropolis’ mayor.
Mayor Sylvester Turner presided over a ceremony Friday granting Consul General Sultan Abdullah Al-Luwaihan Al-Anqari honorary Houston citizenship for Saudi Arabia’s help in rebuilding the city after devastating hurricanes, and for lobbying on behalf of the Texas city to win it the host position for a major global oil conference next year.
While the Saudi government’s state-run news operation, the Saudi Press Agency, reported that the general counsel was granted U.S. honorary citizenship, the mayor’s office told the Washington Examiner that is not accurate.
“At the recommendation of the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, Mayor Turner provided honorary HOUSTON citizenship and NOT U.S. citizenship,” said Mary Benton, the mayor’s press secretary, in an email. Citizenship is typically granted by country, not by city.
Only the president of the United States or an act of Congress can confer honorary U.S. citizenship, which has been reserved for a handful of people over the last century, including Winston Churchill.
Honorary citizenship is mainly a symbolic gesture, with no real rights or privileges. Turner also named the consul general a goodwill ambassador to the city of Houston.
Mayor Turner’s office did not put out a a formal release on the granting of citizenship, but linked to video of the ceremony.
His office explained that Houston citizenship was given as a thank-you for Saudi Arabia’s financial help in rebuilding Houston neighborhoods damaged by Hurricane Harvey, as well as for helping Houston beat Vancouver to be the host city for the World Petroleum Council’s meeting in December 2020. The global event is one of the largest in the world for the oil industry.
Other news outlets in the Arab region picked up the Saudi government’s announcement, which said the general counsel was being honored for “his diplomatic efforts to promote Saudi-American relations,” though Anqari’s efforts were primarily local in scope when it came to Houston, and did not involve the federal government. Anqari is departing as consul after seven years.
The statement comes amid chilly relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia because of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-led war in Yemen, and congressional scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
At the Saudi embassy in Washington, there has been a shake up in recent months, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s brother being ordered back to Riyadh after the murder of Khashoggi from his post as ambassador.
A new, and for the first time female, ambassador is set to take his place soon: Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud.
