Mohamad Chatah advised two former Lebanese prime ministers, Fouad Siniora and Saad al-Hariri, and also served as finance minister. He was a government spokesman during the country’s war with Israel in 2006, and spent several years in America as Lebanon’s ambassador to the US and working for the IMF.<br /><br />The 62 year-old was not a particularly controversial figure in the country and was known as a moderate.<br /><br />He had no particular power base of his own, but his international experience was valued in government circles.<br /><br />Chatah has been described by Lebanon’s current Prime Minister Najib Mikati as a “noble political figure who believed in dialogue, the language of reason and the right to different views”.<br /><br />His work in government put him into contact with Hezbollah, though he was a vocal critic of it. A message on his Twitter account less than an hour before the blast accused the group of trying to take control of the country.<br /><br />The Shi’ite movement is now suspected by some of being behind his killing, although Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar described the explosion as a crime. <br /><br />“We condemn this terrorist act,” he told Hezbollah’s Al Manar television. “It is part of a terrorist wave which the region and Lebanon are witnessing.”
