Salam Fayyad

Salam Fayyad (سلام فياض, Salām Fayāḍ; born 1951 or 12 April 1952) is a Jordanian-Palestinian politician who served as the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and the finance minister.

Salam Fayyad was born in Nablus or Deir al-Ghusun in northern West Bank on 12 April 1952 (according to some sources in 1951 ).

He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1975 and received his MBA from St. Edward's University in 1980.

Fayyad has a PhD in economics, which he received from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student of William Barnett and did early research on the American Divisia Monetary Aggregates, which he continued on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Fayyad began his teaching career at Yarmouk University in Jordan.

He then worked at the World Bank in Washington from 1987 to 1995 and from 1996 to 2001 as the International Monetary Fund's representative to Palestine based in Jerusalem.

He was Finance Minister from June 2002 to November 2005 and from March 2007 to May 2012.

Fayyad served as the regional manager of the Arab Bank in the West Bank and Gaza until he accepted an offer to become Yasser Arafat's Finance Minister in the Palestinian Authority Government of June 2002.

Fayyad resigned from the cabinet in November 2005 to run as founder and leader of the new Third Way party for the legislative elections of 2006.

He held this post until November 2005, when he resigned from the cabinet to run as founder and leader of the new Third Way party in the legislative elections of 2006 alongside Hanan Ashrawi and Yasser Abd Rabbo.

The party yielded little success and only Fayyad and Ashrawi won their seats with only 2.41% of the popular vote.

Fayyad was Prime Minister between June 2007 and June 2013.

The party was not successful, and Fayyad returned as Finance Minister in the March 2007 Unity Government.

Fayyad's first appointment as Prime Minister on 15 June 2007, which was justified by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of "national emergency", was not confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Council.

On 17 March 2007, Fayyad was again appointed Finance Minister, this time in the Fatah-Hamas unity government.

On 15 June 2007, following Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Fayyad was appointed Prime Minister of a disputed emergency government, appointed by President Abbas.

It was a government without any Fatah or Hamas members, supported by Fatah, Israel and the West.

This appointment was challenged as illegal, because it was not approved by the Legislative Council as required by the Palestinian Basic Law.

End February 2009, Hamas and Fatah started a new round of talks in Cairo.

On 7 March 2009, Salam Fayyad submitted his resignation to pave the way for the formation of a national unity government.

Eventually, the negotiations broke down.

On 19 May 2009, Fayyad was reappointed as PM in a new government without Hamas.

On 14 February 2011, Fayyad tendered his government's resignation, two days after PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat had resigned over the leakage of the Palestine Papers, and one day after Abbas had unilaterally called for elections before September, without approval by Hamas.

Abbas immediately asked Fayyad to form a new cabinet.

Both Fatah and Hamas declared themselves against the plan of Fayyad to form a unity government.

On 4 May, however, Abbas and Khaled Meshal signed the Cairo agreement to form a transitional government of technocrats to prepare for legislative and presidential elections.

In June, the negotiations were postponed indefinitely and Abbas changed the focus on a bid for UN recognition for Palestinian statehood in September 2011, instead of forming a unity government.

Abbas expressed his concern over a government with any Hamas involvement because of the international opposition to such a government.

Pending further Fatah–Hamas negotiations, Fayyad remained PM of the caretaker government.

Following the February 2012 Doha agreement and the successive May 2012 Cairo accord, which also failed to be implemented, Mahmoud Abbas asked Fayyad to form a new Cabinet, without Hamas' involvement.

On 16 May 2012, a reshuffled Cabinet saw the light.

Fayyad gave up his post as Finance Minister in favour of Nabeel Kassis.

The PA faced an estimated financing gap of about $500 million.

Eight new ministers were added to the new 21-member cabinet, with two ministers specifically replaced due to corruption.

His successor, Rami Hamdallah, was named on 2 June 2013.

Fayyad is a visiting senior scholar and the Daniella Lipper Coules '95 Distinguished Visitor in Foreign Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

He is widely known for introducing various reforms that improved the Palestinian economy.

On 3 March 2013, Finance Minister Kassis resigned amid deepening economic malaise in the West Bank.

The PA faced a huge budget deficit due to insufficient donor funds and financial sanctions regularly imposed by Israel to punish them, and salary payments for some 150,000 PA employees were delayed.

Kassis also questioned the state-building agenda adopted by the PA under Fayyad's leadership.