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Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi ( ar, حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was
Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...
from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication from 2003 to 2004, in the first government after
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
was deposed. He was designated as Prime Minister by
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Fuad Masum Muhammad Fuad Masum ( ar, محمد فؤاد معصوم هورامي, translit=Muḥammad Fū’ād Ma‘ṣūm; , born 1 January 1938) is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the seventh president of Iraq from 24 July 2014 to 2 October 2018. ...
on 11 August 2014 to succeed Nouri al-Maliki and was approved by the
Iraqi parliament The Council of Representatives ( ar, مجلس النواب, Majlis an-Nuwwāb al-ʿIrāqiyy; ku, ئه‌نجومه‌نی نوێنه‌ران, ''Enjumen-e Nûnerên''), usually referred to simply as the Parliament is the unicameral legislature o ...
on 8 September 2014. Al-Abadi was included in ''Time'' magazine's ''100 Most Influential People of 2018.'' He left the office of Prime Minister in 2018, following rising domestic discontent and widespread violent protests.


Early life and education

Al-Abadi's father was a member of the Baghdad Neurosurgery Hospital and Inspector General of the Iraqi Ministry of Health. He was forced to retire in 1979 due to disagreements with the Ba'athist regime, and was buried in the US after his death. Al-Abadi, who speaks
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, graduated high school in 1970 from the Central High School ( ar, الإعدادية المركزية) in Bagdad. In 1975, he earned a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from the
University of Technology An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...
in Baghdad. In 1980, he earned a PhD degree in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...
.


Career

Al-Abadi joined the Dawa Party in 1967. Two of his brothers were killed and one was put in prison 1980, 1981, and 1982 for belonging to the Dawa Party. In 1981, his third brother was arrested and spent 10 years in prison. In 1977, he became in charge of its organization in Britain. In 1979, he became a member of the party's executive leadership. In 1983, the government confiscated al-Abadi's passport for conspiring against Iraq's
Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused ...
.


Exile

Al-Abadi remained in the UK, in voluntary exile, until the
2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...
.''Iraq's post-war cabinet ''

September 1, 2003, BBC
His positions during this time included: *Director general of a small design and development firm in London specialising in high-technology vertical and horizontal transportation (1993–2003) *Consultant, in London, in matters relating to transportation (1987–2003) *Research leader for a major modernization contract in London (1981–1986) Al-Abadi was awarded a grant from the UK Department of Trade and Industry in 1998. While working in London in 2001 al-Abadi registered a patent relating to rapid transit systems.


Return to Iraq

In 2003, al-Abadi became skeptical of the
Coalition Provisional Authority ) , capital = Baghdad , largest_city = capital , common_languages = Arabic Kurdish English (''de facto'') , government_type = Transitional government , legislature = Iraqi Governing Council , title_leader = Administrator , leader1 = Ja ...
(CPA) privatization plan, proposing to
Paul Bremer Lewis Paul Bremer III (born September 30, 1941) is an American diplomat. He led the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, from May 2003 until June 2004. Early life and education Born on ...
that they had to wait for a legitimate government to be formed. In October 2003, al-Abadi with all 25 of the interim Governing Council ministers protested to Paul Bremer and rejected the CPA's demand to privatize the state-owned companies and infrastructure prior to forming a legitimate government. The CPA, led by Bremer, fell out with al-Abadi and the Governing Council. The CPA worked around the Governing Council, forming a new government that remained beholden to the CPA to serve until the general elections, prompting more aggressive armed actions by insurgents against US-led coalition personnel. While al-Abadi was Minister of Communications, the CPA awarded licenses to three mobile operators to cover all parts of Iraq. Despite being rendered nearly powerless by the CPA, Al-Abadi was not prepared to be '' a rubber stamp'' and introduced more conditions for the licenses. Among them that a sovereign Iraqi government has the power to amend or terminate the licenses and introduce a fourth national license, which caused some friction with the CPA. In 2003, press reports indicated Iraqi officials were under investigation over a questionable deal involving Orascom, an Egypt-based telecoms company, which in late 2003 was awarded a contract to provide a mobile network to central Iraq. Al-Abadi asserted that there was no illicit dealing in the completed awards. In 2004, it was revealed that these allegations were fabrications, and a US Defense Department review found that telecommunications contracting had been illegally influenced in an unsuccessful effort led by disgraced US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense
John A. Shaw John Arthur "Jack" Shaw (July 1, 1939 – April 5, 2020) was an American former civil servant who held positions under several presidents: Senior Staff under Richard Nixon, White House liaison under Gerald Ford, and in the State Department ...
and not by Iraqis. Between January and December 2005, he served as an adviser to the
Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...
in the first elected government. He was elected as a member of the
Iraqi Parliament The Council of Representatives ( ar, مجلس النواب, Majlis an-Nuwwāb al-ʿIrāqiyy; ku, ئه‌نجومه‌نی نوێنه‌ران, ''Enjumen-e Nûnerên''), usually referred to simply as the Parliament is the unicameral legislature o ...
in the December 2005 parliamentary election and chaired the parliamentary committee for Economy, Investment and Reconstruction. Al-Abadi was re-elected in the 2010 parliamentary election as a member of the Iraqi Parliament representing
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. In 2013, he chaired the Finance Committee and was at the center of a parliamentary dispute over the allocation of the 2013 Iraqi budget. Al-Abadi's name was circulated as a prime ministerial candidate during the formation of the Iraqi government in 2006 during which time
Ibrahim al-Jaafari Ibrahim Abd al-Karim al-Eshaiker ( ar, إبراهيم عبد الكريم الأشيقر; born 25 March 1947), also known as Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 200 ...
was replaced by Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister. In 2008, al-Abadi remained steadfast in his support of Iraqi sovereignty, insisting on specific conditions to the agreement with the U.S. regarding its presence in Iraq. In 2009, al-Abadi was identified by the Middle East Economic Digest as a key person to watch in Iraq's reconstruction. He is an active member of the Iraq Petroleum Advisory Committee, participating in the Iraq Petroleum Conferences of 2009–2012 organized by Nawar Abdulhadi and Phillip Clarke of The CWC Group. He was one of several Iraqi politicians supporting a suit against Blackwater as a result of the 2010 dismissal of criminal charges against Blackwater personnel involved in the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians. Al-Abadi was again tapped as a possible Prime Minister during the tough negotiations between Iraqi political blocs after the elections of 2010 to choose a replacement to incumbent PM Nouri al-Maliki. Again in 2014, he was nominated by Shia political parties as an alternative candidate for Prime Minister.


Prime Minister (2014–2018)

On 24 July 2014,
Fuad Masum Muhammad Fuad Masum ( ar, محمد فؤاد معصوم هورامي, translit=Muḥammad Fū’ād Ma‘ṣūm; , born 1 January 1938) is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the seventh president of Iraq from 24 July 2014 to 2 October 2018. ...
became the new president of Iraq. He, in turn, nominated al-Abadi for prime minister on 11 August. For the appointment to take effect, al-Abadi was required to form a government to be confirmed by
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
within 30 days. Al-Maliki, however, refused to give up his post and referred the matter to the federal court claiming the president's nomination was a "constitutional violation." He said, "The insistence on this until the end is to protect the state." On 14 August 2014, in the face of growing calls from world leaders and members of his own party, the embattled Prime Minister announced he was stepping down to make way for al-Abadi. The announcement of the leadership transition from al-Maliki to al-Abadi triggered a major realignment of Sunni Arab public opinion away from armed opposition groups and to the Iraqi government, since many Iraqi Sunni Arabs were optimistic that the new government would address their grievances and deliver public goods and services to them. The Iraqi Parliament approved al-Abadi's new government and his presidential program on 8 September 2014. In the months after assuming office in September 2014, Abadi made determined efforts to increase Sunni participation in the Iraqi government. Abadi appointed
Khaled al-Obaidi Khaled Yassin al-Obaidi (born 1959) is an Iraqi politician who served as the defense minister of Iraq from 2014 to 2016. Background Khalid Yassin al-Obaidi is a Sunni Muslim who was born in Mosul. He belongs to the al-Obaidi Sunni tribal confe ...
, a prominent Sunni politician from
Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
, as his Defense Minister, and the appointment was ratified by the Iraqi parliament after two months. In mid-December 2014, Abadi forged a new revenue-sharing agreement with the Kurds, under which Baghdad agreed to pay the Kurdish Regional Government one half of all income from Kurdish-controlled oil fields. To counter the widespread corruption in the army stemming from the Maliki years, Abadi announced that 50,000 "ghost soldiers" had been identified and would be removed from army payrolls. "Ghost soldiers" were men on army payrolls who never showed up for duty, but paid their officers part of their salaries, thus institutionalizing corruption and hollowing out the armed forces. Iraqi President
Fuad Masum Muhammad Fuad Masum ( ar, محمد فؤاد معصوم هورامي, translit=Muḥammad Fū’ād Ma‘ṣūm; , born 1 January 1938) is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the seventh president of Iraq from 24 July 2014 to 2 October 2018. ...
paid a goodwill visit to
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...
in November 2014. In response, Saudi Arabia prepared to reopen its embassy in Baghdad, which had remained closed since the start of the
Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
in 1990. Abadi has also visited Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey to discuss regional strategies to combat militant Islamist forces. ''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...
'' magazine has written that after four months in power, Abadi's attempts to resolve Iraq's sectarian strife make his premiership "a welcome change from the schismatic style of his predecessor". As a result of Abadi's reforms, the United States pledged $1.5 billion to train Iraqi forces and announced the sale of
F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successf ...
fighter jets, suspended after the
2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...
. Combating political corruption was an early priority of the al-Abadi administration. In August 2015, al-Abadi unveiled a plan to strengthen the government by, among other things, eliminating security details for senior officials and cutting benefits to specific high-level officials. Al-Abadi was forced to contend with the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
as Prime Minister; he was sometimes critical of
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
and the United States military response to the threat of ISIL. Furthermore, al-Abadi pivoted closer towards Russia and Iran in order to combat the threat of ISIL and encouraged cooperation between these nations on military operations in the region. In April, 2016, al-Abadi's difficulties in implementing political reforms led to the storming of the Iraqi parliament by supporters of Shia cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr Muqtada al-Sadr ( ar, مقتدى الصدر, Muqtadā aṣ-Ṣadr; born 4 August 1974) is an Iraqi politician and militia leader. He is the leader of the Sadrist Movement and the leader of the Peace Companies, a successor to the militia he had p ...
. The protesters breaching the
Green Zone The Green Zone ( ar, المنطقة الخضراء, translit=al-minṭaqah al-ḫaḍrā) is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It was a area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental ...
and disrupting the parliament have been described as evidence of Iraq's increasingly dysfunctional political system and al-Abadi's problems in getting
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
under control. On 9 December 2017, Prime Minister Al-Abadi announced victory over ISIL and the end of the
Iraqi Civil War (2014-2017) Iraqi civil war may refer to: * Iraqi–Kurdish conflict (1918–2003), wars and rebellions by Iraqi Kurds against the government ** First Iraqi–Kurdish War (1961–70) ** Second Iraqi–Kurdish War (1974–75) * 1991 Iraqi uprisings, rebellions i ...
. Abadi was succeeded by
Adil Abdul-Mahdi Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki ( ar, عادل عبد المهدي المنتفكي, born 1 January 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from October 2018 until May 2020, hundreds of protestors of ''Tishreen revolutio ...
on 25 October 2018.


References


External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Abadi, Haider 1952 births Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester University of Technology, Iraq alumni Government ministers of Iraq Iraqi expatriates in the United Kingdom Iraqi Shia Muslims Islamic Dawa Party politicians Living people Members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Politicians from Baghdad Prime Ministers of Iraq People of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) Independent politicians