Lebanese businessman Samir Khatib dies

Lebanese businessman Samir Khatib, vice president of engineering consultancy Khatib & Alami and known for his closeness to Lebanese political circles, died Saturday morning at the age of 78, the company announced. .

“It is with great sadness that we announce today the passing of Samir Khatib, Partner, Executive Vice President of the Company and President of the Union of Councils of Businessmen of Lebanon and the Gulf,” said writes Khatib & Alami on Facebook, paying tribute to a “highly respected leader” and “devoted to the growth of the company”.

“In addition to heading the company’s headquarters in Beirut, Samir Khatib has played a key role in establishing and managing several other offices, including Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Algiers and Cairo, and he has helped guide and oversee the company’s offices in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Qatar and Iraq.”

Public markets
For its part, the Council of Lebanese Business Leaders paid tribute to Mr. Khatib and lamented a “loss for the Lebanese diaspora in Arabia and for the construction sector”. “The deceased was active in the development of relations between Lebanon and the Gulf, and especially with Arabia, where he headed the Council for Lebanese and Gulf Affairs”, adds the press release from the Council which salutes “the impact” of this body for the restoration of ties between the two countries in recent months, after Riyadh had decided to cut relations with Beirut for political reasons, linked to the influence of Hezbollah.

Khatib & Alami has obtained dozens of public contracts over the years, reported an article in Le Commerce du Levant in 2019, including a public-private partnership in electricity distribution in Beirut and the Bekaa, through KVA, a joint venture created with the Arabian Construction Company.

Candidate for the presidency of the Council
An engineer by training, having spent most of his career with Khatib & Alami, he was known to be close to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his father, Rafic Hariri. He had also received the support of Saad Hariri when he was approached, in 2019, to succeed him as head of the cabinet, after the fall of the government in the midst of the protest movement of October 2019. But he s was quickly withdrawn from the race in favor of Saad Hariri himself, who had finally announced that he was not a candidate for his own succession. At the time, the street had criticized the candidacy of the businessman, reproaching him for his closeness to political circles.

This proximity had enabled him, in 2018, in the midst of a crisis over the formation of the government, to bring together a large part of the Lebanese political representatives during a dinner in honor of the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Hamad al-Shamsi in his residence in Mazboud, in Iqlim al-Kharroub, the locality from which he originates. A role of mediator which is reminiscent of that of the former director of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, of whom he is a relative by marriage, one of his daughters having married the son of Mr. Ibrahim.

Samir Khatib was married to Adèle Khatib and father of three children.

His funeral will take place Saturday at the end of the day in Mazboud.