Haider Al-Abadi

Dr Haider Al-Abadi (Arabic: حيدر العبادي‎) is an Iraqi politician and spokesman for the Islamic Call Party or Islamic Dawa Party.

Al-Abadi was appointed Minister of Communications in the Iraqi Governing Council on 1 September 2003. A Shia Muslim and electronic consultant engineer by training with a PhD degree from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, in 1980, and a BSc degree from the University of Baghdad in electrical engineering in 1975. Al-Abadi lived in exile during the time of Saddam Hussein in London.^[1]

While in exile Al-Abadi's pre-2003 positions included:^{[citation needed]}

• DG of a small high tech vertical and horizontal transportation Design and Development firm in London, (1993–2003).
• a top London Consultant to the industry in matters relating to people movers, (1987–2003).
• Research Leader for a major modernization contract in London, (1981–1986).
• Registered a patent in London in rapid transit system, (2001).
• Was awarded a Smart grant from the UK Department of Trade and Industry, (1998).
• Politically, he is one of the leaders of the popular Islamic Dawa Party, the head of its political office and a spokesman for the party. He became a member of the party in 1967 and a member of its executive leadership in 1979. The Baath regime executed two of his brothers and imprisoned a third brother for ten years.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, Al-Abadi became sceptical 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 Governing Council interim 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 until general elections had been completed, prompting more aggressive armed resistance by Iraqis against U.S. led coalition personnel.^[2]

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,^[3] minister al-Abadi was not prepared to be a rubber stamp and he introduced more conditions in 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 frictions with the CPA. In 2003, press reports indicated Iraqi officials 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.^[4] In 2004, it was revealed that these allegations were fabrications and that a US Defense Department review found telecommunications contracting had been illegally influenced in an unsuccessful effort led by disgraced U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw and not by Iraqis.^[5]

In 2005, he served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Iraq in the first elected Government.^[6]

He was elected member of Iraqi Parliament in 2005 and chaired the parliamentary committee for Economy, Investment and Reconstruction. Al-Abadi was re-elected as member of Iraqi Parliament representing Baghdad in the general election held on March 7, 2010. In 2013, he chaired the Finance Committee and was at the center of a parliamentary dispute over the allocation of the 2013 Iraqi budget.^[7]

Al-Abadi's name was circulated as a prime ministerial candidate during the formation of the Iraqi government in 2006 during which 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 presence in Iraq.^[8]

In 2009, Al-Abadi was identified by the Middle East Economic Digest as a key person to watch in Iraq's reconstruction.^[6]

He is an active member of the Iraq Petroleum Advisory Committee, participating in the Iraq Petroleum Conferences of 2009-2012.^[9]

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 the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians.^[10]

Al-Abadi was again tipped 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 Noori Al-Maliki.

References

• BBC News (2003-09-01). "Iraq's post-war cabinet". Retrieved 2006-02-24. 
• Council on Foreign Relations (2006). "The New face of Iraq's government". Retrieved 2006-06-06. 

External links

• Twitter account (Arabic language)