Omar Abdul Hamid Karami (last name also spelled Karamé) (born September 7 1934) was the Prime Minister of Lebanon on two seperate occasions. He was Prime Minister for the first time from December 24 1990, when Selim al-Hoss gave up power, until May 13 1992, when he resigned after massive protests when the Lebanese currency collapsed. He was sworn in again on October 21, 2004 and resigned on February 28, 2005, amid protests following the murder of the previous prime minister, Rafik Hariri.
Karami was born in the northern Lebanese town of An Nouri, near Tripoli. He was the son of Lebanese politician Abdul Hamid Karami and the brother of eight-time Arab nationalist prime minister Rashid Karami, who was assassinated in 1987. A lawyer by education, Omar entered politics following Rashid's assassination. He has been a member of Parliament representing Tripoli since 1991. He is a staunch supporter of close ties with neighboring Syria. This support has led to criticism from nationalist Lebanese, especially from the predominantly anti-Syrian Maronite Christian community, that he has subordinated Lebanon's sovereignty to Syrian political hegemony.
After the murder of the previous Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, in 2005, members of the opposition blamed Syria for the assassination, and demanded Syria withdraw its troops and intelligence personnel from Lebanon, something Karami's pro-Syrian government opposed. Some opposition leaders even accused Karami's government itself of involvement with the killing. Protests grew in Beirut despite an official ban on public protests, and the opposition planned to call for a no confidence vote. Amid the growing pressure, Karami announced on February 28, 2005 that his government would resign, although it remained temporarily in a caretaker role.
Ten days after the resignation, following much larger protests in Beirut that were supportive of Syria, President Émile Lahoud re-appointed Karami as prime minister on March 10 and asked him to form a new government. With the backing of a majority of MPs, Karami called on all parties to join a government of national unity. [1]
On April 13, after failing to create a new Government, Karami resigned again. This resignation added to the turmoil already prevailant in Lebanon since Rafik Hariri assasination as now there was no Government to call the elections which were due that upcoming March.[2]
|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Rafik Hariri | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Prime Minister of Lebanon
2004–2005 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Najib Mikati
See also
Last updated: 05-17-2005 03:45:39
