19 Facts About Lakhdar Brahimi

Lakhdar Brahimi is an Algerian United Nations diplomat who served as the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria until 14 May 2014.

Lakhdar Brahimi was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria from 1991 to 1993.

Lakhdar Brahimi served as chairman of the United Nations Panel on United Nations Peace Operations in 2000.

Lakhdar Brahimi is a member of The Elders, a group of world leaders working for global peace.

Lakhdar Brahimi is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the first global initiative to focus specifically on the link between exclusion, poverty and law.

Lakhdar Brahimi has been a Member of the Global Leadership Foundation since 2008, an organization which works to promote good governance around the world.

Lakhdar Brahimi is currently a distinguished senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Lakhdar Brahimi relinquished his post as UN Special Envoy to Syria on 31 May 2014.

Lakhdar Brahimi was educated in Algeria and in France where he studied law and political science.

Lakhdar Brahimi was the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Lakhdar Brahimi facilitated the first American UN Force Commander since their involvement in the Korean War.

Lakhdar Brahimi was chair of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, which produced the influential Lakhdar Brahimi Report.

Lakhdar Brahimi suggested that the Iraq Interim Governing Council should be dissolved and that most of its members should not have any role in the new government.

In May 2004, Lakhdar Brahimi was supposed to play a largely advisory role in the appointment of candidates, which ended up selecting as Iraq's new interim President and Prime Minister: Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer and Iyad Allawi, respectively.

However, Lakhdar Brahimi expressed serious disappointment and frustration about his role.

Lakhdar Brahimi was one of the founders of the French language Journal of Palestine Studies called La revue d'etude palestinienne.

On 17 August 2012, Lakhdar Brahimi was appointed by the United Nations as the new peace envoy to Syria, replacing Kofi Annan.

On 13 May 2014, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that Lakhdar Brahimi would resign as the special envoy to Syria on 31 May 2014.

Lakhdar Brahimi is married to Mila Bacic Brahimi, and has three children: Salah Brahimi is the CEO of Grey Matter International, a consultant company, located in Washington, DC, where he lives with his wife, Dr Doaa Taha, and his two children; Princess Rym al-Ali, who was a CNN correspondent in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War, is married to Prince Ali bin Hussein.