Samir Shihabi

Samir Shihabi (* May 27, 1925, † 25 August 2010) was a Saudi Arabian diplomat. He was 1991-1992 President of the UN General Assembly.

Life

Samir Shihabi graduated in Political Science and Economics with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cairo. Later studies at Yale University, at Cambridge University and at the University of New York joined. He also earned a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies.

After entering the diplomatic service in 1949 initially before use in the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1956 he became First Secretary at the Embassy in Bern and then 1959-1961 Chargé ( " charge d'affaires " ) at the embassy in Rome. In 1961 he returned to the Foreign Ministry, where he was Director of the Department for the United Nations and international organizations. In 1964, he became the first Saudi ambassador to Turkey. In this post he remained until 1973. Subsequently he spent a year as ambassador to Somalia.

In 1974 he returned again to the Foreign Ministry, where he was Senior Advisor to the Foreign Minister and Acting Deputy Secretary of State. As such, he took off in 1974 also participated in delegations to the UN. 1980 Shihabi was then ambassador to Pakistan.

Shihabi was in September 1983 Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia at the UN. He had, as such, a major role in the founding of the International Association of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations. He was twice elected president of this association.

On September 17, 1991, he was elected to succeed Guido de Marco as President of the 46th UN General Assembly. This office he held until 15 September 1992 when he was succeeded by Stojan GANEV.

Shihabi after the end of his diplomatic career was consultative curator at the American University of Cairo (American University in Cairo, AUC).