He is the top Palestinian diplomat in the country, a long-time negotiator in the never-ending Middle East peace process.

But Washington-based Maen Rashid Areikat, chief representative of the general delegation of the PLO to the United States, is also student of America and Western ways, having received degrees from Arizona State University and Western International University in 1987. He received diplomatic training at the Ministry of External Affairs in Ottawa, Canada and even took a good governance course at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.