Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Daad Muhammad Ahmad Sharab , ( February 14, 1961 ) is a Libyan politician and diplomat from the Palestinian city of Tulkarm . She is considered one of the most prominent contemporary Libyan political figures, as she held the position of advisor to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi from 1988 until the outbreak of the Libyan civil war in 2011. During this period, she also held the position of Libya's envoy to the countries of the world. She was Libya's representative in the most important sensitive political negotiations between Libya and the world. She thus spent 22 consecutive years in her position alongside Gaddafi as his advisor, making her a witness to Libya's contemporary history. She is considered one of the politicians closest to the Libyan leader Gaddafi . She was known as "Gaddafi's right hand."
Her upbringing and academic achievement
Daad Muhammad Ahmad Sharab was born on February 14, 1961 in the Saudi city of Jeddah to a Palestinian family from the city of Tulkarm , where her father had moved to Saudi Arabia in 1955 to work there. Daad received her education in Saudi schools, she spent her summer vacation in their home in the city of Tulkarm in the West Bank until the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967. ]
“My earliest memories ,” Daad says in her book, “The Colonel and I,” were of playing on the sunny balcony of my grandfather Ahmed’s house in Tulkarm , as he watched me from his wooden chair and smoked a shisha. Those carefree days did not last. After the Six-Day War in June 1967 , I was unable to visit again. Eventually, the house was lost, along with precious family photos and other possessions .”
In 1978, she moved with her father to Jordan and finished high school there , then joined the University of Jordan to major in economics and business administration.
Her political and diplomatic life
Daad Sharab began her political career on the sidelines of her participation in the Arab Women's Conference in Tripoli, Libya, in March 1987 as a businesswoman with investments in Jordan , Libya , and other countries. Sharab met Naima al-Saghir at the conference, who was the head of the Women's Associations Union in the Gaddafi government, and Naima al-Saghir introduced Sharab to Gaddafi. Thus, Sharab met Gaddafi for the first time, and he offered her a job as his business advisor at first.
During the twenty-two years that Daad spent in her position alongside Gaddafi , she was responsible for conducting official negotiations between Libya and other countries, in addition to carrying Gaddafi’s messages to heads of state and government. She also held the position of Libya’s envoy and representative during this period in the most important sensitive political negotiations between Libya and the world, such as the negotiations to release the Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, whom Sharab visited in his prison in Scotland three times before his release. Daad often met with world figures, including Hillary Clinton , George Bush Sr. , Shimon Peres , Adnan Khashoggi , Al-Waleed bin Talal , Suha Arafat , Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein , James Baker , and many others.
Following the 2008 Gaza War, Israel offered Libya to be a potential mediator between the Palestinians and the Israelis to achieve peace. Sharab flew secretly to Tel Aviv on an Israeli plane from the capital Amman to Tel Aviv and met with Israeli President Shimon Peres . She initially refused to shake his hand, telling him, "You are killing Palestinians every day in Gaza ." He responded by saying, "Israel wants to solve the issue of Gaza and the Palestinians." At the end of the meeting, Sharab shook hands with Peres and they agreed to hold a meeting in Jordan between Libya and Israel , but the efforts later failed and the initiative did not yield any results.
Several months before the outbreak of the Libyan civil war in 2011 , Gaddafi detained her in a place designated for the detention of his sons and senior officials in his regime. Jordanian King Abdullah II personally asked Gaddafi to release her during the Jordanian king's last visit to Libya before the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 , but Gaddafi did not respond to this request.
During the events of the Libyan civil war in 2011 , Daad was injured in a NATO airstrike on Libyan territory, and was also shot while fleeing to Tunisia through the Libyan desert .
On Thursday, September 1 , 2011, Daad arrived in Jordan from Tunisia accompanied by Jordanian officials. Jordanian intelligence had taken on the task of securing and transporting her from Libya to Tunisia and from there to Jordan under the direct supervision of Jordanian King Abdullah II, who called Sharab the moment the Jordanian security team arrived in Libya to get her out. Jordanian King Abdullah II had previously met with the Jordanian security team leaving for Libya and asked them to make reaching Daad Sharab a priority in their plans.
In an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Rai on September 5, 2011, Sharab said that she “was forming and dismissing Libyan governments.”
Honors
Daad has received several honors, including the “Honor of the Turkish City of Bodrum ” by the city’s mayor on September 22 , 2015.
Her writings
In 2021, Sharab from the United Kingdom published her famous book in English entitled “The Colonel and I: My Life with Gaddafi” in which she talked about her personal life and secrets about the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi revealed for the first time.
They said about her
Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa described her as a "ticking time bomb" due to the nature of the information she held during her 22 years in office alongside Gaddafi as his advisor.
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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