Shukri Ghanem
Encyclopedia
Shukri Mohammed Ghanem (born 9 October 1942) is a Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

n politician who was General Secretary of the General People's Committee of Libya
General People's Committee of Libya
The General People's Committee , often abbreviated as the GPCO, acted as secretaries for various Libyan ministries during the era of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya...

 (prime minister) from June 2003 until March 2006 when, in the first major government re-shuffle in over a decade, he was replaced by his deputy, Baghdadi Mahmudi
Baghdadi Mahmudi
Baghdadi Ali Mahmudi was Secretary of the General People's Committee of Libya from 5 March 2006 to as late as 1 September 2011, when he acknowledged the collapse of the GPCO and the ascendance of the National Transitional Council as a result of the Libyan civil war...

. Ghanem subsequently served as the Minister of Oil until 2011.

Early in the 2011 Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

 he reportedly "fled", but after the city of Ra's Lanuf
Ra's Lanuf
Ra's Lanuf is a Mediterranean town in northern Libya, on the Gulf of Sidra. The town is also home to the Ra's Lanuf Refinery, completed in 1984, with a crude oil refining capacity of . The oil refinery is operated by the Ra's Lanuf Oil & Gas Processing Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned...

 was recaptured by pro-government forces, AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 reported on 13 March that he asked Italian oil giant Eni SpA
Eni
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...

 for help with putting out a fire at the an oil facility. On 16 May, Al-Arabya and the NTC reported that Shukri Ghanem defected to Tunisia. The next day Tunisian security officials confirmed he had defected into Tunisia.

Background

With advanced degrees
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in International Economics and Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

, Ghanem was previously in charge of the OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...

 secretariat, and was the Director of its Research Division. He served as Deputy Director and Director of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Economy in Libya; was Director of Marketing of Libya's National Oil Corporation
National Oil Corporation
The National Oil Corporation is the national oil company of Libya. It dominates Libya's oil industry, along with a number of smaller subsidiaries, which combined account for around 70% the country's oil output...

 (NOC); was Director of Economic Affairs and Under Secretary and Chief Advisor at the Ministry of Petroleum in Libya. In March 2006, Ghanem was appointed Chairman of Libya's NOC. He tendered his resignation from NOC in August 2009 amidst probable disagreements within the Libyan government over the development of the oil sector.

International relations

Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 had been diplomatically isolated and subject to international sanctions since the November 1991 indictment
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...

 of two Libyans for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...

 on 21 December 1988 (the Lockerbie bombing). Following Ghanem's appointment as prime minister, Libya successfully sought re-entry into the international community and the lifting of sanctions. Ghanem was seen as the main spokesman and architect of this rapprochement, which included paying $2.16 billion compensation in August 2003 to the families of the 270 people who died in the bombing, and renouncing weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...

.

On 8 April 2011, against the background of the 2011 Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

, the US Treasary department announced sanctions against him.

Controversy

In February 2004, Ghanem was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today program. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/misc/libya_20040224.shtml He stirred controversy in the interview by repudiating Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

's responsibility both for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1984 murder of British WPC Yvonne Fletcher
Yvonne Fletcher
WPC Yvonne Joyce Fletcher was a British police officer fatally shot during a protest outside the Libyan embassy at St. James's Square, London, in 1984. Fletcher, who had been on duty and deployed to police the protest, died shortly afterwards at Westminster Hospital...

 (who was shot and killed in April 1984 outside the Libyan Embassy in London). This incident led to the severing of UK/Libya diplomatic relations.
"After the problems we [Libya] have been facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed a compensation," Ghanem said in the interview.

When asked whether the payment of compensation meant that Libya did not accept any guilt or responsibility, Ghanem replied:
"I agree with that, and this is why I say we bought peace."

Under pressure from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Ghanem's comments were quickly retracted by Gaddafi.

It is unclear whether Shukri Ghanem's dismissal as prime minister in 2006 was a consequence of those controversial remarks he made two years earlier.

2011 Civil War

On 16 May it was reported that Ghanem has defected from the Gaddafi government and fled, which was confirmed the next day by Tunisian security officials.

External links

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