Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer

His uncle, Sheikh Mohsen Ajil al-Yawar, is the current head of the Shammar tribe and his grandfather played a role in guiding Iraq towards independence in the 1920s, later serving as a member of the king's parliament.

Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar (غازي مشعل عجيل الياور, born 1958) is an Iraqi politician.

Born in Mosul, Iraq in 1958, al-Yawar completed his primary and secondary education in Iraq.

He then went on to study in King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) for two years before completing his BSc in civil engineering in the UK.

Al-Yawar enrolled in an English language program at American University in Washington, D.C., and then received his master's degree from George Washington University in the mid 1980s.

The House of Yawar has been the head of the Shammar tribe for centuries.

The Shammar is one of Iraq's biggest tribal confederations with more than 1.5 million people covering vast territories from Iraq into Syria and Saudi Arabia.

Composed of both Sunnis and Shiites, the Shammar are generally religiously and politically moderate.

"My mother would take me to visit the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala, in addition to the Sunni mosques in Baghdad and St. Mary's Church," Yawar told the Iraqi paper Al Zaman.

This had an impact on al-Yawar's leadership approach later in his political career, and one that made a lasting impression.

According to Jaffar Saheb Said, an elder at the northern Baghdad shrine of Imam Kadhem, a Shiite saint, "he's deep-rooted and well-known among Arab clans. He's able to navigate between both Shias and Sunnis and solve their problems."

When al-Yawar's uncle refused to sanction Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 the family went into exile in London.

Al-Yawar, who was then residing in Saudi Arabia, eschewed politics and instead established a successful telecommunications company.

He spent much of the past two decades in Saudi Arabia, where he became vice president of a telecommunications company High Capabilities Co. (HiCap).

Al-Yawar was originally a member of the Iraqi Governing Council created following the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.

After the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, al-Yawar returned to Iraq at the request of his uncle, Mohsen al-Yawar.

He also served as the president of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2004 following the US-led coalition invasion.

In 2004 he was appointed by the council to serve as interim President of Iraq following the 28 June return of Iraqi sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Following the assassination of Iraqi Governing Council President Ezzedine Salim on 17 May 2004, Ghazi al-Yawar assumed the May rotating presidency for the Governing Council.

During his term as interim president, leading up to the dissolution of the Governing Council, al-Yawar spoke out against the misperception that Arab Sunnis in Iraq enjoyed huge privileges under Saddam Hussein's rule.

Al-Yawar adamantly affirmed that "Saddam did not believe in any religion or sect – his injustices were inflicted on Sunnis, Shi'is, Kurds and all other national groups and sects. He did not differentiate between one Iraqi and another."

Al-Yawar was scheduled to be the last holder of the rotating council presidency, with a term lasting until 30 June 2004, the date of the expected transition to official Iraqi sovereignty.

Instead, he was chosen at an earlier date to be Iraq's formal Head of State, and occupy the largely symbolic post of "State President" of Iraq.

Adnan Pachachi was preferred by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but most members of the Governing Council had favored al-Yawar.

Members of the council had accused the UN of trying to impose a new Iraqi president against their wishes.

The dispute delayed the announcement of the interim government that would lead Iraq from the end of the month, but on 1 June 2004 the special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, confirmed Sheikh Ghazi's appointment as interim president.

Ayad Allawi, who served as Prime Minister during al-Yawar's presidency, is a Shiite Muslim.

The two collectively represented Iraq's largest Muslim sects.

Al-Yawar and the Iraqi Interim Government were sworn in on 28 June 2004, when the U.S.-led coalition handed over power two days early.

Sheikh Ghazi's selection as interim president, at first resisted and then accepted by the American administrators in Iraq, is further recognition of the tribal revival at this time.

Although this post was described as largely ceremonial, it in fact exercised both symbolic and political sway.

As a Sunni tribal leader, he reassured his fellow Sunnis while also representing a familiar type of authority figure for the tribal Kurds, and embodying traditional values esteemed by Shiite religious figures.

Faleh A. Jabar, a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, called Sheikh Ghazi "a tribal figure who knows modern ways, not a modern leader who knows tribal ways. He is clever, cautious in choosing words and values the seniority of age, a supreme value in tribal people. Being a sheikh, you have to give the lead to each and everyone except yourself."

L. Paul Bremer in his memoirs indicated that George W. Bush himself urged the appointment of al-Yawar, as Bush "had been favorably impressed by Ghazi's open thanks to the Coalition for overthrowing Saddam and by his determination to continue the process to sovereignty and eventual democracy."

But to many Iraqis, Sheikh al-Yawar was part of the Governing Council, which had lost virtually all legitimacy after its inability to solve the military and political crisis that had erupted across Iraq in April.

Al-Yawar had been openly critical of the sectarian Governing Council, often acknowledging that the council was more focused on survival than on serious issues, adding only to the country's problems.

"We sit in the council while the country is burning and argue over procedure," Sheikh Ghazi told the Christian Science Monitor.

"We're like the Byzantines in Constantinople, debating whether angels are male or female with the barbarians at the gate."

Like Ayad Allawi, the prime minister, and many of the council members appointed to new jobs in the cabinet and ministries, he faced a struggle to live down his role as a former council member.

He was the vice president under the Iraqi Transitional Government in 2006, and was interim president of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government from 2004 to 2005.