Claude Salhani (March 25, 1952 – August 13, 2022) was born in Cairo. He was a Lebanese, French & American photographer forUnited Press International (UPI) andReuters news agencies, later head of UPI Photos and UPI Foreign Desk Editor as well as policy expert and author, best known for his photographic reportage of the 23 October1983 Beirut barracks bombings on theUnited States Marines.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} During his journalism career, Salhani coveredBlack September, theLebanon Civil War, theTurkish invasion of Cyprus, theDhofar War (Oman), theIran-Iraq War, the 1982Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the1979 Iranian Revolution, theGulf War, theFall of the Berlin Wall, the CzechVelvet Revolution, and theIraq War (Operation Enduring Freedom) as well as the wider Middle East, Europe, and Africa.^[1][3][6]

Claude Salhani was born on March 25, 1952, in Cairo, Egypt. In the 2000s, he earned an MA in Conflict Analysis and Management fromRoyal Roads University.^[1][6]

In 1970, age 18, Salhani joinedAn-Nahar andL'Orient-Le Jour newspapers in Beirut.^[1][3] He covered clashes between Jordanian and Palestinian forces ("Black September") in Jordan.^[1] By 1973, he had joinedSygma photo agency, whose clients includedTime andNewsweek magazines, and landed photos on at least two covers ofTime (1973,^[8] 1975^[9]).^[1] He worked for Sygma until 1980.^[6] In 1981, he became head of UPI Photos for the Middle East; in 1983, he covered the bombing of US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.^[1][3] In 1984, he joinedReuters news agency as head of Reuters Photos for Europe, Middle East, and Africa; he lived in Brussels, London, and Paris.^{[1][6][10][11]} In the early 1990s, he moved to Washington, first to head US operations forSipa Press and then to rejoin UPI as head of Photos through the rest of the 1990s and in 2000 international editor.^[1][12] He also served as editor for theMiddle East Times and theWashington Times.^[1] Later, Salhani became a media analyst for major newspapers and an international television station.^[3] He contributed to publications byThe National (UAE), theCato Institute,^[13] andAmerican Foreign Service Association. He also appeared onC-SPAN television.^[4]

Salhani married Cynthia Nuckolls; they had two children, Justin and Isabelle.^[1][6]

Salhani had many narrow escapes on the front lines. In 1981, Salhani inside the Reuters building when Israeli artillery hit it and escaped with minor injury.^[1][5] On another occasion, a Palestinian splinter group detained him;Yasser Arafat of thePalestine Liberation Organization secured his release.^[1][5] In 1983, while photographing the 1983 bombing of USMC HQ barracks in Beirut, he also helped dig out survivors.^[5]

Salhani was personal friends withGibran Tueni, founder ofAn-Nahar.^[14] He was a mentor to many photographers and journalists, including UPI and Reuters colleagues Martin Sieff,^[5] Dalal Saoud,^[1] Aline Manoukian,^[7] and Jack Dabaghian,^[6] all of whom paid tribute to him.

Claude Salhani died age 70 on August 13, 2022, in Paris, France,^[1][3][5] and a service was held atPère Lachaise Cemetery.^[6]

• Honorary US Marine Corps member for help during the 1983 bombing on USMC HQ Beirut^[5]
• Pulitzer Prize nominee for photographs of the 1983 bombing on USMC HQ Beirut^[1]

The USNational Portrait Gallery has a photograph ofYasser Arafat by Salhani dated 1974.^[15]

Since the 1970s, Salhani's photos, editorials, and personal recollections also became sources for other books on history and policy,^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]} as well as for his own memoir,Black September to Desert Storm (1998).^[24][25][26]

In 1995, US AmbassadorDavid D. Pearce called him "one of the premier photographers of the war in Lebanon."^[27] In 2022, UPI colleague Martin Sieff called him "theWillie Mays of journalism – he could – and did do everything well."^[5]

Occasionally, Salhani himself appeared as an actor in history, for exampleThomas L. Friedman's 1990 bookFrom Beirut to Jerusalem^[28] andDavid Petraeus andNigel West's 2016Spycraft Secrets.^[29]

Salhani contributed personal photos to US military historians including former US Marine Benis M. Frank in his 1987 bookU.S. Marines in Lebanon, 1982-1984^[30] and former US Navy SEAL Chuck Pfarrer in his 2003 bookWarrior Soul.^[31]

Books (Non-Fiction) Authored

• Black September to Desert Storm : A Journalist in the Middle East (1998)^[4][32]
• While the Arab World Slept: The Impact of the Bush years on the Middle East (2009)^[33]
• Islam Without a Veil: Kazakhstan's Path of Moderation (2011)^{[34][35][36][37]}

Books (Fiction) Authored

• Inauguration Day: A Thriller (2015)^[38][39]

Articles for UPI

• "The other Sept. remembrance" (2002)^[40]
• "Analysis: What is Plan B in the Iraq War?" (2003)^[41]
• "Iraq: One year Later" (2003)^[42]
• "Analysis: Preparing the post-Arafat Era" (2004)^[43]
• "Politics & Policies: Iran a Clear Danger" (2005)^[44]
• "Analysis: Today They Killed My Friend" (2005)^[14]
• "Politics & Policies: Ahmadinejad's Antics" (2005)^[45]
• "Jordanian Role Larger Than First Reported" (2006)^[46]
• "Intelligence Summit Takes Flak" (2007)^[47]
• "Analysis: Outsourcing war is good business" (2007)^[48]

Articles forThe National (UAE)

• "Al Jazeera's historic role in Arab political change becomes a news story in itself" (2011)^[49]
• "Hamas cools to Syria as the Arab Spring's tally mounts" (2011)^[50]
• "Fighting an old war on terror requires new coordination" (2011)^[51]
• "Turkey takes a leading role in the region but not everyone applauds" (2011)^[52]

Articles for theWashington Times

• "Lebanon on a Tinderbox" (2006)^[53]
• "Kazakhstan assumes presidency of Europe security group" (2010)^[54]
• "Kazakh official warns against quitting Afghanistan" (2010)^[55]
• "Kazakh crackdown on media exposes vulnerabilities" (2010)^[56]
• "Revolt in Central Asia" (2010)^[57]
• "Key player in nuclear, Afghan security" (2010)^[58]
• "Is Iran behind an attempted coup?" (2010)^[59]

Articles for the Cato Institute

• "The Syria Accountability Act: Taking the Wrong Road to Damascus" (2005)^[60]

Articles forForeign Service Journal

• "Resolving the Palestine Question" (2003)^[61]

Articles forThe National Interest

• "Olmert's Secret Weapon: Prime Minister Deployed a Boomerang" (2006)^[62]
• "Live from Lebanon" (2006)^[63]

• L'Express photo 1976 by Claude Salhani/Sygma
• TIME magazine cover photo 1977 by Claude Salhani/Sygma
• Salhani in Dubai 1978
• Getty Images by Claude Salhani
• PhotosArchived 2022-08-20 at theWayback Machine Claude Salhani
• Photos USMCArchived 2022-08-19 at theWayback Machine Claude Salhani
• UPI analyses by Claude Salhani
• Washington Times editorials by Claude Salhani
• C-SPAN Claude Salhani
• Huffington Claude Salhani

• 1952 births
• 2022 deaths
• American photojournalists
• United Press International people
• Reuters people
• American people of Egyptian descent
• American people of Lebanese descent
• American male journalists
• American newspaper editors
• People from Cairo

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