Ministry of Defence (Iraq)

The Ministry of Defence (Arabic: وزارة الدفاع العراقية‎) is the Iraq government agency responsible for Defence of Iraq. It is also involved with internal security.

Authority

The Ministry directs all the Iraqi Armed Forces, comprising a Joint Headquarters, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command (which controls the Army), the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Navy (including Marines), and the Iraqi Air Force.^[1]

History

The Ministry was dissolved by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 of mid-2003. It was formally re-established by CPA Order 61 of February 22, 2004. In the interim period, the CPA Office of Security Affairs served as the de facto Ministry of Defence.^[2]

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 CTB a separate ministry.^[3]

Minister of Defense

The position of Minister of Defense was left vacant in the previous Iraqi cabinet, approved on 21 December 2010. While it is vacant, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki served as the acting defense minister. Saadoun al-Dulaimi later served as Minister of Defense from 2011 to 2014. Khaled al-Obaidi currently serves as defense minister in the Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The previous Minister of Defense, 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 members which dominate his own party. In addition, as a Sunni he faced inherent challenges working within a Shiite-dominated government.

On September 19, 2005, The Independent reported that approximately one billion US dollars have been stolen by top ranking officials from the Ministry of Defense including Hazim al-Shaalan and Ziyad Cattan.^[4]

Previous defence ministers under Saddam Hussein's regime included Ali Hassan al-Majid ('Chemical Ali'). Iraq's very first minister of defence was Jafar al-Askari (1920-1922).

List of Ministers of Defense

Ministers of Defense 1921 - 1958

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
	Jafar al-Askari		23 October 1920	16 November 1922			Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani
	Nuri as-Said		20 November 1922	2 August 1924
	Yasin al-Hashimi		2 August 1924	2 June 1925
	Nuri as-Said		26 June 1925	8 January 1928
	Abd al-Muhsin as-Sa'dun		14 January 1928	20 January 1929
	Muhammad Amin Zaki		28 April 1929	25 August 1929
	Nuri al-Sa’id		19 September 1929	19 March 1930
	Ja’far al-‘Askari		23 March 1930	27 October 1932
	Rashid al-Khawja		3 November 1932	18 March 1933
	Jalal Baban		20 March 1933	28 October 1933

Ministers of Defense 1958 - 1968

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	President
	Abd al-Karim Qasim		14 July 1958	8 February 1963	Independent		Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i
	Salah Mahdi Ammash		8 February 1963	10 November 1963	Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)		Abdul Salam Arif
	Hardan al-Tikriti		10 November 1963	2 March 1964
	Tahir Yahya		2 March 1964	3 September 1965	Arab Socialist Union
	Arif Abd ar-Razzaq		6 September 1965	16 September 1965	Arab Socialist Union
	Abd al-'Aziz al-'Uqaili		21 September 1965	18 April 1966
	Shakir Mahmud Shukri		18 April 1966	17 July 1968			Abdul Rahman Arif

Ministers of Defense 1968 - 2003

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	President
	Ibrahim Abdel Rahman Dawoud		17 July 1968	30 July 1968	Independent		Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
	Hardan al-Tikriti		30 July 1968	April 1970	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Hammad Shihab		April 1970	30 June 1973	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Abdullah al-Khadduri (acting)		30 June 1973	11 November 1974	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr		11 November 1974	15 October 1977	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Adnan Khairallah		15 October 1977	4 May 1989	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)		Saddam Hussein
	Abdel Jabbar Khalil Shanshal		4 May 1989	1990	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Saadi Tuma Abbas		1990	1991	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Ali Hassan al-Majid		1991	1995	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)
	Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai		1995	2003	Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region)

Ministers of Defense 2003 - present

Name		Portrait	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
	Ali Allawi		April 2004	June 2004	Independent		Ayad Allawi
	Hazim al-Shaalan		June 2004	1 June 2005	Iraqi National Congress
	Saadoun al-Dulaimi		1 June 2005	6 March 2006	Independent		Ibrahim al-Jaafari
	Qadir Obeidi		6 March 2006	21 December 2010	Independent		Nouri al-Maliki
	Nouri al-Maliki		21 December 2010	17 August 2011	State of Law Coalition
	Saadoun al-Dulaimi		17 August 2011	October 2014	Unity Alliance of Iraq
	Khaled al-Obaidi		October 2014		Unity Alliance of Iraq		Haider al-Abadi

Notes

1. ↑ United States Department of Defense, Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq, Report to Congress, June 2007, p.37
2. ↑ Rathmell, Andrew. Developing Iraq's security sector: the coalition provisional authority's experience. Rand Corporation. p. 27. ISBN 0-8330-3823-0. 
3. ↑ Montrose Toast, Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau, 30 June 2009
4. ↑ Cockburn, Patrick (19 September 2005). "What has happened to Iraq's missing $1bn?". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-07-01. 

Further reading

• RAND, 'Developing Iraq's Security Sector: The Coalition Provisional Authority's Experience,' 2005, p. 27-32

External links

• Ministry of Defense
• Ministry of Defense (Arabic)