---
alias:
- Hassan Youssef Yassin
category: Business & Finance
created: 2026-09-22
died: 2026-05-17
location: Mecca, Saudi Arabia
summary: Son of King Abdulaziz's adviser Youssef Yassin, cousin of Adnan Khashoggi
  and associate of Kamal Adham, who headed the Saudi Information Office in Washington
  from 1972 to 1981 and died in May 2026.
tags:
- Person
- HassanYassin
- SaudiArabia
- Khashoggi
- Washington
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Hassan Yassin (Mecca, to May 17, 2026) was the son of Sheikh Youssef Yassin, political adviser to King Abdulaziz, the founder of [Saudi Arabia](/places/saudi-arabia/), and grew up, in the words of his obituary, "immersed in the details and inner workings of Saudi politics from an early age." Educated in Mecca and Taif and at Victoria College in Alexandria, he studied in the United States in the 1950s and worked under the oil ministers Abdullah Tariki and Ahmed Zaki Yamani from 1959 to 1967. From 1972 to 1981 he headed the Saudi Information Office in [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/), the kingdom's public diplomacy post in the capital during the oil embargo, the Yamani years and the first arms sales fights in Congress; he then served with the Arab League's observer delegation at the United Nations from 1981 to 1983, later advised a Saudi ambassador in Washington, and wrote a column for Arab News. Saudi officials mourning him called him "a national memory and a cultural treasure trove that accompanied our kings."[^1]

He was a cousin of the arms dealer [Adnan Khashoggi](/people/adnan-khashoggi/) and was described, in the account of the [BCCI](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) affair by Beaty and Gwynne, as a close business associate of [Kamal Adham](/people/kamal-adham/), the head of Saudi intelligence and the bank's front man. No documented transaction connects him to [Earl Brian](/people/earl-brian/)'s [Hadron](/organizations/hadron/) or United Press International ventures; he does not appear in the House Judiciary Committee's report, the Bua report or [Ari Ben-Menashe](/people/ari-ben-menashe/)'s book.[^2]

[^1]: Hassan, Rashid. "Testament to Saudi Arabia's modern history, Hassan Yassin dies," *Arab News,* May 18, 2026. https://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/testament-to-saudi-arabias-modern-history-hassan-yassin-dies-2644043 Victoria College is from an earlier Arab News profile not examined.
[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank,* Random House, 1993, p. 352, as cited on [[Adnan Khashoggi]]; House Report 102-857 and the Bua report, searched in full, contain no reference to him.