Meet Haider al-Abadi, The Man Named Iraq’S New Prime Minister
By Adam Taylor August 11 at 10:17 AM
Iraq's president on Monday named Haider al-Abadi as the country's new prime minister, an appointment that came amid speculation that the embattled incumbent, Nouri al-Maliki, would cling to power even after his country had dissolved into chaos and the United States made it clear that it would not support him as leader anymore.
But who is Abadi? Born in Baghdad in 1952, Abadi was educated at the University of Baghdad and later received a doctorate from the University of Manchester in Britain. He lived in Britain for many years after his family was targeted by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. He was trained as an electrical engineer, but he entered politics after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. He became minister of communications in the Iraqi Governing Council in September 2003, then was a key adviser to Maliki in Iraq's first post-invasion elected government. Just weeks ago, he was elected deputy speaker of parliament, and he has been considered a contender for prime minister in the past two elections.
The bigger question, however, is whether Abadi will be able to overcome the challenges confronting Iraq more successfully than Maliki. Like Maliki, he's a Shiite Muslim and is a member of the ruling State of Law coalition. One of the chief criticisms of Maliki was that he entrenched Iraq's sectarian politics, filling the government with Shiite politicians and limiting Sunni and Kurdish power.
Earlier this summer, Abadi gave a striking interview to the Huffington Post's Mehdi Hasan in which he discussed the possibility of Iranian intervention in the fight against the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group that has taken over vast swaths of Iraq.
"We are waiting for the Americans to give us support," he said in the June interview. "If U.S. air strikes [happen], we don't need Iranian air strikes. If they don't, then we may need Iranian strikes." Abadi has also had differences with Iraq's Kurdish community at points: Last year he warned that a dispute over Iraqi Kurdistan's oil exports could lead to the "disintegration" of the country, and he was criticized by Kurdish politicians during the negotiations over the 2013 budget.
more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/11/meet-haider-al-abadi-the-man-named-iraqs-new-prime-minister/