Nabil Shaath

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

He has held the following titles:[4][5]

• Palestinian chief negotiator
• Palestinian International Co-operation Minister
• Planning Minister for the Palestinian National Authority
• Acting Prime Minister of the PNA

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.

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.[6][7]

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.