Ibrahim al-Jaafari

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Ibrahim al-Jaafari.jpg Dr. Ibrahim abd al-Karim Hamza al-Ashaiqir al-Jaafari (Template:Lang-ar) (born 1947) is the former Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government following the elections of January 2005. He is a Shiite and was previously one of the two vice-presidents of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government in 2004, and the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa Party in Iraq.

He was born Ibrahim al-Ashaiqir (Template:Lang) in Karbala. He is a sayyid, or descendant from Muhammed and his great grandfather, Sayyid Mahdi bin Sayyid Ali bin Sayyid Baqir al-Ushaiqir, led the al-Ushaiqir revolt in Karbala in 1876 against the Ottoman Empire. The Al-Ushaiqir family originated from the city of al-Ushaiqir, in what is now Saudi Arabia. [1]

Jaafari was educated at Mosul university as a medical doctor. He joined the Islamic Dawa Party in 1968. Upon graduation from school in 1974 he worked actively for the party in Iraq which was trying to overthrow the Ba'athist secular government. He left for Iran in 1980 and became involved in the movement against Saddam Hussein there. He adopted the name al-Jaafari in exile to protect his family in Iraq from retribution by Saddam. He moved to London in 1989 where he became the al-Dawa spokesman in the UK and an important participant in the wider anti-Saddam movement. While in the UK he attended many Iraqi Events giving religious sermons.

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which he opposed, he quickly returned to the country. He was picked in July 2003 as member of the U.S.-backed Interim Governing Council, and served as its first chairman and Iraq's first post-Saddam interim President for one month. On 1 June 2004, he was selected to be one of the two vice-presidents in the Iraqi Interim Government.

He brought al-Dawa into the United Iraqi Alliance coalition of Shi'ite parties and was second on the party's list after SCIRI leader Abdel-Aziz Hakim.

Following the January 2005 Iraqi elections the strength of the UIA in the parliament made him a likely candidate to become the nation's new Prime Minister. Only Ahmed Chalabi challenged him for the position. Chalabi later dropped out of the race, being less than a favourite for a majority of the parties in the UIA, partly tainted by his former relationship with the US, thus leaving al-Jaafari unchallenged to become the alliance's candidate for the post. He was designated as Prime Minister on 7 April 2005, following the election of a Presidency Council the day before. After a long period of negotiations aimed at establishing a broad-based government, he and his cabinet were finally approved by the National Assembly of Iraq on 28 April.

In the national election of December 2005, the UIA once again won the majority of the votes, which according the the new Iraqi constitution, gets to pick the Prime Minister. UIA members voted for the Prime Minister with only two main candidates. Al-Jaafari was one and the SCIRI member Adel Abdul Mahdi, a secular economist. Jaafari won the vote only by one (64 - 63). His win was credited to the support of Muqtada Al Sadr's members of UIA, who all voted for him.

According to media reports United States President George W. Bush has demanded that al-Jaafari resign and not run for reelection. The two have been carrying on high-profile disputes in late 2005, early 2006 over the ongoing Iraq War.

Prime Minister al-Jaafari is known for being soft-spoken and using flowery language laced with phrases from classical Arabic and literary allusions. Tim Russert revealed that al-Jaafari's favorite current author is not an Arab at all, however, but rather American professor Noam Chomsky.

[2][3][4]

[edit]