Hikmat al-Shihabi (Arabic: حكمت الشهابي) (b. Bab al-Hawa, 1933) Syrian career officer who served as the chief of staff of the Syrian Army between 1974–1998.^[1]

Hikmat al-Shihabi began his career in aviation, training in the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1970 he earned a Soviet degree in intelligence services. In April 1971 he was named head of intelligence services of the Syrian Army (military intelligence), assisted by Colonel Ali Duba. He was promoted to a general the following year, and supervised the department of military security. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he led the Syrian delegation to the United States in April of 1974, negotiating the conditions of the Syrian–Israeli disengagement. On 12 August 1974 he was appointed chief of staff of the Syrian Army, replacing Yusuf Shakkur, who was promoted to deputy defense minister. In December 1983, while President Hafez al-Assad was ill, Shihabi was part, along with General Mustafa Tlass and Ali Duba, of the committee in charge of running the country. Between 1994 and 1995 he was part of a delegation that traveled to the United States to discuss peace negotiations with Israel.^[1]

In July 1998, after twenty-four years as army chief of staff, he was forced to resign his post in a purge prior to Hafez al-Assad's death.^[1] Shihabi—seen as an ally of then-vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam—was considered a potential threat to Bashar al-Assad. In 2000 rumors saying Shihabi would be indicted on corruption charges, were leaked to Syrian newspapers. Shihabi, who was in Lebanon at the time, boarded a plane and fled to California. However, a month later, Shihabi returned and was officially "rehabilitated" by Bashar al-Assad.^[2]