Historica Wiki
Advertisement
Najib Mikati

Najib Mikati (born 24 November 1955) was Prime Minister of Lebanon from 15 April to 19 July 2005, succeeding Omar Karami and preceding Fouad Siniora, and from 13 June 2011 to 15 February 2014, succeeding Saad Hariri and preceding Tammam Salam.

Biography[]

Najib Mikati was born on 24 November 1955 in Tripoli, Lebanon to a Sunni Muslim family. He graduated with an MBA from the American University of Beirut in 1980 and founded the telecommunications company Investcom in 1982, and on 4 December 1998 Mikati was appointed Minister of Public Works and Transport. In 2000, he was elected to the Lebanese Parliament for the Majd Movement, and he allied with President Emile Lahoud, supporting the 2004 extension of his term. Mikati won the support of the anti-Syrian opposition for promising to dismiss the security chiefs responsible for Rafik Hariri's assassination in 2005, and on 15 April 2005 he was chosen as the new Prime Minister of Lebanon. However, after the failure to form a consensus government, he resigned on 19 July 2005. On 13 June 2011, he became Prime Minister once more under Michel Suleiman, but he was pressured by both supporters and opponents of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad during the spillover of the Syrian Civil War, leading to his resignation on 15 February 2014. By April 2015, however, his fortune of $3,300,000,000 made him the richest man in Lebanon after selling his company.

Advertisement