Cutler to Resume His Former Post as Envoy to Saudis

The White House announced the nomination Monday of career diplomat Walter Cutler to replace a U.S. ambassador reportedly recalled from his post in Saudi Arabia due to objections from the Saudi royal family.

In a routine announcement without elaboration, the White House said President Reagan will nominate Cutler, 56, who served as the previous ambassador to Saudi Arabia, to resume that post, succeeding Hume A. Horan.

The State Department acknowledged last week that Horan, a career Foreign Service officer who succeeded Cutler as ambassador only last year, was being “withdrawn” from his assignment “in the national interest.”

However, the announcement came against the backdrop of reports that Horan, a fluent speaker of Arabic who served five years in Saudi Arabia as deputy chief of mission, had clashed with Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. The reports indicated that Fahd, outraged by a lecture from Horan about Saudi Arabia’s purchase of intermediate-range missiles from China, asked that the ambassador be pulled back.