Hume A. Horan, 69; U.S. Diplomat to Troubled Middle East

Hume A. Horan, 69, a U.S. diplomat to the Middle East during some of its most turbulent years, died Thursday in a hospital in Virginia, his family announced Saturday in Washington, D.C.

Horan’s final posting in the troubled area was ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 1988, but after six months King Faud told him to leave. The State Department explained the departure as a personality conflict. Horan attributed his recall to an altered U.S. position over the Saudis’ purchase from China of medium-range missiles capable of reaching Israel.

Earlier in Horan’s career, he was a desk officer in Libya in 1969 when Moammar Kadafi led a coup, overturning the reign of King Idris and installing himself as ruler. A year later, Horan was a political officer in Amman, Jordan, when Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization began and lost a bloody rebellion against King Hussein.

In 1973, Horan was deputy chief of mission in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, when OPEC ordered an oil boycott. He was still there in 1975 when King Feisal was assassinated by his nephew, an Islamic extremist. Horan’s 1988 posting was his second to Saudi Arabia.

During his diplomatic career, he was posted to Baghdad, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and Sudan. He retired in 1998 but last year was in Iraq for six months as senior counselor to the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority.