Said bin Taimur
When Said bin Taimur of Oman was ousted in a coup in July 1970 and replaced with his son Qaboos bin Said, he was sent in exile and lived at the Dorchester until his death in 1972. The McAlpine family owned the hotel until 1977 when they sold it to a consortium of businessmen from the Middle East headed by the Sultan of Brunei. On 3 June 1982, Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom was shot and seriously injured in an assassination attempt as he left the Dorchester. The attack was the immediate cause for the 1982 Lebanon War.