Mohamad Chatah (Arabic: محمد شطح;[1] 7 March 1951 – 27 December 2013) was a Lebanese economist and diplomat.
[4] During the July 2006 war, Chatah appeared on numerous Western news outlets as a public spokesman for the Lebanese government.
[5] When asked about the government's role 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.
[5][9] At approximately 9:40am on 27 December 2013,[10] a car bomb struck Chatah's convoy[11][12] in the Central District of Beirut, Lebanon.
[15][16][17] The US President Barack Obama and the Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the assassination of Chatah and described it as a terrorist attack on 27 December.