Mohamad Bahaa Chatah

Mohamad Bahaa Chatah Arabic: (محمد بهاء شطح‎)  (1951-27 December 2013) was a Lebanese economist and diplomat.

Career

Chatah served as Ambassador of Lebanon to the U.S. from 1997 to 2000; his term ended with the resignation of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. 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 Hariri on February 14, 2005; he returned to Lebanon as a senior adviser to the newly elected Prime Minister Fouad Siniora (a long-time Hariri confidante).

With the July 2006 war, Chatah appeared on numerous Western news outlets as a public spokesman for the Lebanese government. When asked on the role of the Lebanese government in disarming local armed groups, Chatah said "we are doing it [through] dialogue 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." 

Chatah was named the minister of finance of the 70th Lebanese government in July 2008. He is affiliated with the Hariri 'Future Movement' political group, although he officially remains an independent figure in Lebanese politics. He served as senior adviser to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora from August 2005 to July 2008 and Saad Hariri from August 2009 to January 2011.

Chatah along with the rest of Ministers are caught in between an age long stalemate between several political parties.

Death

Chatah was assassinated on 27 December 2013, when a car bomb struck his convoy in downtown Beirut. The explosion killed six people and injured more than 70.

Publications

• Offshore gas belongs to the Lebanese, so let them see the money