Najib Mikati

Najib Mikati (born November 24, 1955, Tripoli, Lebanon) Lebanese businessman and prime minister (2005, 2011–14, and 2021– ).

Early life and career

In 1967, when Mikati was still a boy, his older brother Taha Mikati started a construction company in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The company became especially lucrative during a construction boom in the country. Najib Mikati, who in 1980 earned an M.B.A. from the American University of Beirut, later assisted his brother in his business ventures after the latter’s return to Lebanon in 1978. In 1982 the two brothers began offering satellite phone access to the country’s telecommunications network, which had been devastated by the ongoing civil war (1975–90). In 1984 they cofounded Investcom, which specialized in providing mobile phones in emerging markets. The family’s conglomerate, M1 Group, was founded in 2007 after the multibillion-dollar sale of Investcom to MTN Group in South Africa. M1 Group maintains a stake in Investcom and includes subsidiaries and investments in the finance, real estate, fashion, and energy sectors.

As Lebanon’s long civil war came to a close in 1990, the country’s peace was guaranteed by the presence of Syrian forces, and its reconstruction was handled by wealthy entrepreneurs. As such, politics in Lebanon became dominated by allies of Syrian officials and investors with close connections to the oil-rich Persian Gulf market. Mikati fit both profiles, and in 1998 he was appointed to lead the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, a position that he held under two premiers until 2004. His already close relationship to Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad grew during his tenure, and in 2001 Mikati received a license to operate one of two private wireless telecommunications networks in Syria.

Stints as prime minister

Meanwhile, Rafic al-Hariri, a two-time prime minister (1992–98 and 2000–04) who had also earned a large fortune in the Persian Gulf and invested in Lebanon’s reconstruction, opposed Syrian influence in Lebanon’s political realm. His assassination in February 2005 was widely believed to be related to a political spat with the Syrian government, and his death thrust Lebanon into a standoff between two factions, one favouring the Syrian patronage of Lebanon and one seeking an end to Syria’s occupation of the country. After the government resigned and a Syrian withdrawal was announced, Mikati was selected in April to head a caretaker government. His cabinet was tasked with overseeing the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and steering the country toward new elections. Elections were held in May and June and delivered a parliamentary majority to the bloc that opposed Syrian influence. Mikati, fulfilling a promise he had made upon his appointment as caretaker, did not run to retain his seat in parliament, and in July he left government as Fouad Siniora, a member of the party Hariri had belonged to, took over as prime minister.

Mikati returned to parliament after the 2009 elections, which again favoured Hariri’s bloc. A unity government was formed under the premiership of Hariri’s son Saad al-Hariri, but it collapsed in January 2011 amid a dispute over a United Nations investigation into Rafic al-Hariri’s death. Mikati was nominated to head the government later that month, but opposition from Hariri and his supporters delayed the formation of a government until June.

Lebanon was soon plunged into both political and economic crisis as the Syrian uprising against Assad devolved into a civil war. Because Lebanon was still intricately linked with Syria, the stakes were high for Lebanon’s political actors. The economy, which had avoided much of the tumult of the global financial crisis of 2007–08, was now strained by a devastated Syrian market and the massive influx of refugees into Lebanon. The polarized environment left Mikati unable to navigate the demands of those who supported Assad and those who wanted him out of power. Mikati resigned from the premiership in March 2013 but remained in a caretaker capacity until a replacement was found in February 2014.

Polarization ultimately brought him back to the premiership in 2021, however. Crises remained unresolved in the years that followed his stint as prime minister, and the government’s ineptitude had eventually given way to neglect. When an abandoned store of ammonium nitrate in Beirut resulted in a deadly and destructive mushroom cloud explosion in August 2020, the government resigned. After nearly a year of failed attempts to form a new government, Mikati was appointed prime minister as a compromise candidate in July 2021, and his cabinet was approved by parliament in September.