| Adil (Adel) Abdul-Mahdi عادل عبدالمهدي |
|
|---|---|
| First Vice President of Iraq | |
| In office April 6, 2005 – May 31, 2011 |
|
| President | Jalal Talabani |
| Preceded by | Ibrahim Jaafari |
| Succeeded by | Tariq Al-Hashimi |
| Finance Minister of Iraq | |
| In office June 2, 2004 – April 6, 2005 |
|
| President | Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer |
| Prime Minister | Ayad Allawi |
| Succeeded by | Ali Allawi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1942 Baghdad, Iraq |
| Political party | SIIC |
| Religion | Shia Islam |
Adil (Adel) Abdul-Mahdi (al Muntafiki) (Arabic: عادل عبد المهدى ) (born 1942 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi Shi'a politician, economist, and was one of the Vice-Presidents of Iraq from 2005 to 2011. He was formerly the Finance Minister in the Interim government.
Abdel-Mahdi is a member of the powerful Shi'a party the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC. Long based in neighboring Iran, the group opposed a United States administration while holding close ties with the other U.S.-backed groups that opposed Saddam Hussein, including the Kurds and the Iraqi National Congress.
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He is a trained economist who left Iraq in 1969 for exile in France. He worked for French think tanks and edited magazines in French and Arabic. Adel Abdul Mahdi is also referred to as Adel Abd al'Mahdi, as well as other various derivations. He was educated in France, and is the son of a respected Shiite cleric who was a minister in Iraq's monarchy. He attended high school at Baghdad College, an elite American Jesuit secondary school.
In the 1970s, Abdul-Mahdi was a leading member of the Iraqi Communist Party. The Party split into two separate factions, the ICP-Central Committee, which was more accommodating of the military governments that had ruled Iraq since 1958, and the ICP-Central Leadership, which rejected all forms of cooperation of what it regarded as anti-progressive regimes, in 1967. Abdul-Mahdi joined the ICP-Central Leadership, and continued being active until it gradually disappeared by the early 1980s. By that time, Abdul-Mahdi adopted Iranian Islamic ideas, eventually merging with the Islamists when Ayatollah Khomeini eradicated the communists and other liberal oppositions groups in Iran. Abdul-Mahdi continued his association with Iran and gradually amalgamated his group within the ICP-Central Leadership with the Iranians, rejecting his Marxist past and devoting all his group's time to propagating Khomeini's ideas in France, where he lived at the time. He eventually was made a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an exiled opposition party and militia that was formed by Iran in Tehran in 1982 but composed exclusively of Iraqi exiles.[1]
In 2006, Abdul-Mahdi, outgoing Vice President in the transitional government, unsuccessfully ran for the United Iraqi Alliance's nomination for Prime Minister against incumbent Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He lost by one vote. He was reportedly considered to be a possibility for Prime Minister once again until Nouri al-Maliki became the UIA nominee. Subsequently, Abdul-Mahdi was re-elected as Vice President of Iraq. He exerted his limited authority in that role by delaying the first meeting of the National Assembly in March. He resigned from his position as vice-president on 31 May 2011[2].
In December 2006, the Associated Press reported that Abdul-Mahdi could be the next Prime Minister of Iraq if a new multi-sectarian coalition succeeded in toppling the government of Nouri al-Maliki. [1]
On February 26, 2007, he survived an assassination attempt that killed ten people.[3]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Coalition Provisional Authority |
Finance Minister of Iraq 2004-2005 |
Succeeded by Ali Allawi |
| Preceded by Ibrahim Jaafari |
Vice President of Iraq 2005-2011 |
Succeeded by Tariq Al-Hashimi |