Haider al-Abadi

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

Al-Abadi joined the Dawa Party in 1967.

Al-Abadi, who speaks English, graduated high school in 1970 from the Central High School (الإعدادية المركزية) in Bagdad.

In 1975, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Technology in Baghdad.

In 1977, he became in charge of its organization in Britain.

He was forced to retire in 1979 due to disagreements with the Ba'athist regime, and was buried in the US after his death.

In 1979, he became a member of the party's executive leadership.

In 1980, he earned a PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester.

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 1983, the government confiscated al-Abadi's passport for conspiring against Iraq's Ba'ath Party.

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.

Previously he served as Minister of Communication from 2003 to 2004, in the first government after Saddam Hussein was deposed.

Al-Abadi remained in the UK, in voluntary exile, until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

His positions during this time included:

In 2003, al-Abadi became skeptical of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) privatization plan, proposing to Paul Bremer 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 and not by Iraqis.

Between January and December 2005, he served as an adviser to the Prime Minister of Iraq in the first elected government.

He was elected as a member of the Iraqi Parliament in the December 2005 parliamentary election and chaired the parliamentary committee for Economy, Investment and Reconstruction.

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 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.

Al-Abadi was re-elected in the 2010 parliamentary election as a member of the Iraqi Parliament representing Baghdad.

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.

In office throughout the majority of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) which he announced victory against ISIL, he later left the office of Prime Minister in 2018, following rising domestic discontent and widespread violent protests.

Al-Abadi's father was a member of the Baghdad Neurosurgery Hospital and Inspector General of the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

In 2013, he chaired the Finance Committee and was at the center of a parliamentary dispute over the allocation of the 2013 Iraqi budget.

He was designated as Prime Minister by President Fuad Masum on 11 August 2014 to succeed Nouri Al-Maliki and was approved by the Iraqi parliament on 8 September 2014.

Al-Abadi was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.