The Ministry of Defence ( ar, وزارة الدفاع العراقية) is the

Iraqi government The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution, approved in 2005, as an Islamic, democratic, federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as w ...

agency responsible for

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. It is also involved with

internal security Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. Responsibility for internal secu ...

Authority

The Ministry directs all the

Iraqi Armed Forces The Iraqi Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة العراقية romanized: ''Al-Quwwat Al-Musallahah Al-Iraqiyyah'') ( Kurdish: هێزە چەکدارەکانی عێراق) are the military forces of the Republic of Iraq. They consist ...

, comprising a Joint Headquarters, the

Iraqi Ground Forces Command The Ground Forces Command at Victory Base Complex near Baghdad Airport was the most important fighting formation in the Iraqi Army. The headquarters of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command and the Iraqi Joint Forces Command are the same entity. Since ...

(which controls the Army), the

Iraqi Special Operations Forces The Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) ( ar, قوات العمليات الخاصة العراقية) are a special operations force of Iraq. The unit was created in 1950, but was disbanded and recruited from scratch by coalition forces after ...

, the Iraqi Army, the

Iraqi Navy The Iraqi Naval Forces (Arabic: القوات البحرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed forces of Iraq. Formed in 1937, initially as the ''Iraqi Coastal Defense Force,'' its primary resp ...

(including Marines), and the

Iraqi Air Force The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF or IrAF) ( ar, القوات الجوية العراقية, Al Quwwat al Jawwiyah al Iraqiyyah}) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well ...

History

The Ministry was dissolved by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 of mid-2003. It was formally re-established by CPA Order 67 of 21 March 2004. In the interim period, the CPA Office of Security Affairs served as the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

Ministry of Defence. The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau directs the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Command, which is a further military force answerable to the Prime Minister of Iraq directly. As of 30 June 2009, there had been legislation in progress for a year to make the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau a separate ministry.

Minister of Defence

The position of

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

became vacant in the previous Iraqi cabinet, approved on 21 December 2010. While it was vacant, Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki ( ar, نوري المالكي; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president ...

served as the acting defence minister.

Saadoun al-Dulaimi Saadoun al-Dulaimi ( ar, سعدون الدليمي ''Saʿadūn ad-Dulaimī'') (born 1954) is an Iraqi politician, the ex-minister of defence for two terms, ex-minister of culture, and a former MP for two consecutive terms. Early life and educat ...

later served as Minister of Defence from 2011 to 2014.

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 ...

served as defence minister in the Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister

Haider al-Abadi Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi ( ar, حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication fro ...

Juma Inad Juma Inad (born 1956) is serving as the Minister of Defense of Iraq under al-Kadhimi's government since 2020. References 1956 births Living people Defence ministers of Iraq Iraqi generals {{Iraq-politician-stub ...

served as defense minister from May 2020 to October of 2022 under the caretaker government of

Mustafa al-Kadhimi Mustafa Abdul Latif Mishatat ( ar, مصطفى عبد اللطيف مشتت; born 5 July 1967), known as Mustafa al-Kadhimi, alternatively spelt Mustafa al-Kadhimy, is an Iraqi politician, lawyer and bureaucrat and former intelligence officer who ...

Thabet Muhammad Al-Abasi Thabet is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Hasheem Thabeet (born 1987), Tanzanian basketball player * Kamel Amin Thaabet (1924-65), Israeli spy * Safwan Thabet (born 1946), Egyptian businessman * Tarek Thabe ...

serves as the current minister of defense as of 2022. The previous Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Abd al-Qadr Muhammed Jassim al-Obaidi, is a Sunni career military officer and political independent. He had limited experience and faced a number of hurdles impeding his effective governance. Some of the major problems included inheriting a staff that is notorious for favorism, corruption, and deeply divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. He was a rival of the former Minister of the Interior Jawad al-Bolani, National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubai, and Minister of Staff for National Security Affairs Shirwan al-Waili. He has been criticized for not being able to stand up to the Badr Organization and

Mehdi Army The Peace Companies ( ar, سرايا السلام, or Saraya al Salam) are an Iraqi armed group linked to Iraq's Shia community. They are a 2014 revival of the Mahdi Army ( ''Jaysh al-Mahdī'') that was created by the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada a ...

members which dominate his own party. In addition, as a Sunni he faced inherent challenges working within a Shiite-dominated government. On 19 September 2005,

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

reported that approximately one billion US dollars have been stolen by top ranking officials from the Ministry of Defence including

Hazim al-Shaalan Hazim al-Shaalan al-Khuzaei (born 1947) was Iraq's Defence Minister from June 2004 until May 2005 under the Iraqi Interim Government of Ayad Allawi. Shaalan was born in Diwaniyya, southern Iraq, into a leading family of the Ghazal tribe. He is a ...

and

Ziyad Cattan Ziyad Cattan is a dual citizen of Poland and Iraq. He earned a PhD in economics. During the twenty years he lived in Poland Cattan operated both a used car and a pizza companies. According to an article published in ''The Independent'', on 19 Se ...

. Previous defence ministers under

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 ...

's regime included

Ali Hassan al-Majid Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( ar, علي حسن عبد المجيد التكريت, ʿAlī Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrītī; 30 November 1941 – 25 January 2010), nicknamed Chemical Ali ( ar, علي الكيمياوي, ʿAlī al-Kīm ...

('Chemical Ali'). Iraq's first minister of defence was

Jafar al-Askari Ja'far Pasha al-Askari ( ar, جعفر العسكري; 15 September 1885 – 29 October 1936) served twice as prime minister of Iraq: from 22 November 1923 to 3 August 1924; and from 21 November 1926 to 31 December 1927. Al-Askari served in th ...

(1920-1922).

List of Ministers of Defence

Kingdom of Iraq (1921–1958)

Iraqi Republic (1958–1968)

Ba'athist Iraq (1968–2003)

Republic of Iraq A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
(2004–present)

References

External links

Ministry of Defence
{{Authority control

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

Military of Iraq 2004 establishments in Iraq Ministry of Defense (Iraq) Defence ministers of Iraq