Nabil Shaath
Palestinian politician
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| Intro | Palestinian politician | |
| Places | Palestine | |
| is | Politician | |
| Work field | Politics | |
| Gender |
| |
| Religion: | Islam | |
| Birth | Safed |
The details
Biography
Nabil Ali Muhammad (Abu Rashid) Shaath (Arabic: نبيل شعث, Nabīl Shaʿath, also spelled Sha'ath; born August 1934 in Safad) is a senior Palestinian official. He has held the following titles:
Palestinian chief negotiator
Palestinian cabinet minister
Palestinian International Co-operation Minister
Planning Minister for the Palestinian National Authority
Acting Prime Minister of the PNA
^ 'Shaʿth, Nabil Ali Muhammad (Abu Rashid; 1938–)', in Claude Faure, Dictionary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 2004. – via HighBeam (subscription required)
Career
In politics
Nabil Shaath (R), 2004
Nabil Shaath (L) with Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 1997
With the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva.
Shaath served as the Palestinian Authority's first ever foreign minister from April 2003 to February 2005.
Shaath was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information in the Palestinian Authority Government of February 2005. On 15 December 2005, he became Acting Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority after Ahmad Qurei resigned. He lost that position nine days later when Qurei returned to office.
Bush anecdote
Shaath made news on 7 October 2005 by commenting for a BBC documentary that in a 2003 meeting with United States President George W. Bush, Bush told him and other Palestinian officials that Bush was "driven with a mission from God."
According to Shaath, the quotation was this:
"God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did.
"And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it."
Shaath later qualified his comments, saying that he and other world leaders at a Jordan summit two years ago "understood that he was illustrating [in his comments] his strong faith and his belief that this is what God wanted." Both the White House and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was also present at the meeting, denies that Bush ever made such a statement.
In business
In 1976, Shaath started Team International as one of the first large Multi Arab Consulting Companies. By the early 1980s, Team Int. was already established as a field leader.
Film appearances
Shaath appeared in the 2009 documentary Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace which deals with the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The film is being released by Channel Productions in New York City.