Mohamad Chatah ( ar, محمد شطح;
7 March 1951 – 27 December 2013) was a
Lebanese economist and diplomat.
Biography
Chatah was born in
Tripoli, Lebanon
Tripoli ( ar, طرابلس/ ALA-LC: ''Ṭarābulus'', Lebanese Arabic: ''Ṭrablus'') is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Gove ...
.
[ He studied economics at the American University in Beirut and earned a doctorate at the ]University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.[
In 1983 he secured a position with the ]International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
as the deputy to the Executive Director, Dr. Mohamed Finaish.[ He served as Ambassador to the U.S. from 1997 to 2000. He returned to the IMF in 2001 and stayed until June 2005. Chatah's resignation from the IMF in 2005 coincided with the assassination of former ]Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Rafik Hariri
Rafik is the given name of:
* Rafik Al-Hariri (1944–2005), business tycoon, former Prime Minister of Lebanon
* Rafik Bouderbal (born 1987), French-born Algerian player currently playing for ES Sétif in the Algerian Championnat National
* Rafik ...
on 14 February 2005; he returned to Lebanon as a senior adviser to the newly elected Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in August 2005 and served in the post until July 2008.[ During the July 2006 war, Chatah appeared on numerous Western news outlets as a public spokesman for the Lebanese government.][ When asked about the government's role in disarming local armed groups, Chatah said "we are doing it hroughdialogue and persuasion, and trying to reach a point where the state is the sole holder of weapons and the one with the only authority throughout our territory." He also served as vice-governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon.][
Chatah was named the ]Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
of the 70th Lebanese government in July 2008 and held the position to November 2009. He served as foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Saad Hariri
Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri ( ar, سعد الدين رفيق الحريري, translit=Saʿd ad-Dīn Rafīq al-Ḥarīrī; born 18 April 1970) is a Lebanese-Saudi politician who served as the prime minister of Lebanon from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 ...
from November 2009 to January 2011. He was affiliated with the Hariri Future Movement
The Future Movement ( ar, تيار المستقبل) is a Lebanese political party affiliated with the Sunni sect. The party was founded as a coalition in 1995 led by Rafic Hariri but was officially founded in 2007. The party is led by Saad Har ...
, a Sunni political group, although he officially remained an independent figure in national politics.
Assassination and reactions
At approximately 9:40am on 27 December 2013,Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
.[ The bombing killed a total of eight people, among them Chatah, and injured seventy others.]Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
and the Secretary of State John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...
condemned the assassination of Chatah and described it as a terrorist attack on 27 December.
Publications
Offshore gas belongs to the Lebanese, so let them see the moneyMohamad Chatah's Blog
See also
* List of assassinated Lebanese politicians
This is a list of many, but not all, of the assassinated Lebanese political figures:
*Amine Abouchahine - senior member of the Progressive Socialist Party. Assassinated on 15 July 1975 by a member of the Kataeb Regulatory Forces.
*Sheikh Ahmad A ...
References
External links
Personal blog
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatah, Mohamad
1951 births
2013 deaths
People from Tripoli, Lebanon
Lebanese Sunni Muslims
American University of Beirut alumni
University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni
International Monetary Fund people
Ambassadors of Lebanon to the United States
Finance ministers of Lebanon
Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon
Assassinated Lebanese politicians
Mass murder victims
Deaths by car bomb in Lebanon
Lebanese officials of the United Nations
Future Movement politicians