Samir Shihabi
| Samir al Shihabi | |
|---|---|
Shihabi in 1958
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| President of the United Nations General Assembly | |
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In office 1991–1992 |
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| Preceded by | Guido de Marco |
| Succeeded by | Stoyan Ganev |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 May 1925 Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine |
| Died | 25 August 2010 (aged 85) Portugal |
Samir al Shihabi, (27 May 1925 – 25 August 2010) served as President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1991 to 1992.
Shihabi was born in Jerusalem on 27 May 1925. He studied at Yale University and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.
One of the most prominent Saudi diplomats of his generation, Shihabi joined the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1949. He rose quickly to become Charge d'Affairs in Italy in 1959 and then served as Saudi Ambassador to Turkey from 1964 to 1973, Ambassador to Somalia for six months in 1974 and then assumed the post of Acting Deputy Foreign Minister early in the tenure of Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal. He was then appointed Ambassador to Pakistan in 1979, before becoming Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 1983.
In 1991, he was elected as President of the United Nations General Assembly. His final diplomatic posting, in 1994, was as Ambassador to Switzerland after which he retired in 1999.
His career was marked by a close personal and working relationship with the late King Faisal and also the late King Fahd. He carried out sensitive missions for King Faisal in support of Saudi efforts to limit Soviet influence in the region. With King Fahd he worked closely on the Afghanistan file, post the Soviet invasion.
His posting to Pakistan in 1979 was directly related to these efforts, and to putting in place the military alliance between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that by the early 1980s had over 10,000 Pakistani troops posted in the Kingdom.
His election to the Presidency of the U.N General Assembly, in 1991, was one of the few hard fought elections for what had traditionally been a consensus appointment by rotation among regions.
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