Expertise:
Terrorism – Middle East – United Nations
Program:
Real & Imagined Security Threats in an Uncertain World
Mr Mokhtar Lamani is a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa. He was the Head of the Office of the UN-League of Arab States Joint Special Representative for Syria in Damascus from September 2012 to May 2014. Before his appointment in OJSRS-D, Mr. Lamani was the Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Canada.
Previously, he served as Ambassador Special Representative of the Arab League in Iraq, appointed by the Arab Summit in 2006. On behalf of the Arab League, he worked to reconcile fractious parties and sectarian groups in Iraq while building peaceful relations between Iraq and neighboring countries.
Prior to his position as Special Representative, Mr. Lamani served as Ambassador of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation to the United Nations in New York from 1998 to 2004.
His distinguished career in international diplomacy includes a number of positions with the General Secretariat of the Arab League, including Deputy Permanent Observer to the UN, Officer in Charge of the Iraq-Kuwait dispute, Coordinator of Secretariat Reform, and Coordinator of the Euro-Arab Dialogue and Afro-Arab Cooperation, Responsible of European relations.