Nouri al-Maliki

Nouri al-Maliki (a.k.a. Nuri al-Maliki) is Prime Minister of Iraq.

Profile
According to his Multi-National Force-Iraq profile (April 2006) (as stated), Al-Maliki was born in 1950 in a Karbala village. He holds an MA in Arabic. He was formerly employed at the Ministry of Education and has been a member of Al-Da'wah Party since 1968.

In 1980, he left Iraq after Saddam Husayn [sic] banned Al-Da'wah Party and after he was sentenced to death in absentia. He moved to Iran where he acted against the Iraqi regime.

He is the head of the Jihadist Current within Al-Da'wah Party. He then moved to Syria after he refused to fight with the Iranian Army against the Iraqi Army during the war. He is the head of the Al-Da'wah Party's offices in Syria and Lebanon.

He is the former chief editor of Al-Mawqif newspaper, the mouthpiece of Al-Da'wah Party, a member of the political bureau of Al-Da'wah Party, and described as a "pragmatic politician."

Al-Maliki is said to enjoy good relations with most former Iraqi opposition parties and is said to represent the Arab identity of Al-Da'wah Party and is known not to take a pro-Iranian stand. He took up a number of positions after the fall of the regime: head of the "security committee" at the Iraqi National Assembly; spokesman for the Iraqi Unified Coalition; member of the Sovereignty Committee at the National Assembly. He is an advocate of Kurdish demands to normalize matters in Kirkuk.

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * civil war in Iraq
 * Kurdistan - The Other Iraq
 * McCain doctrine
 * New Iraq
 * post-war Iraq
 * sectarian break-up of Iraq
 * violence in the Middle East