Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer
Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar (Arabic: غازي مشعل عجيل الياور, born 1958) is an Iraqi politician. He was the vice president under the Iraqi Transitional Government in 2006, and was interim president of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government from 2004 to 2005. He also served as the president of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2004 following the US-led coalition invasion.
Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar
Saddam Hussein (as President of Iraq)
Paul Bremer (as Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority)
Al-Yawar was originally a member of the Iraqi Governing Council created following the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2004 he was appointed by the council to serve as interim President of Iraq following the 28 June return of Iraqi sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Early life and education[edit]
Born in Mosul, Iraq in 1958,[1] al-Yawar completed his primary and secondary education in Iraq. He then went on to study in King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) for two years before completing his BSc in civil engineering in the UK.[1] Al-Yawar enrolled in an English language program at American University in Washington, D.C., and then received his master's degree from George Washington University in the mid 1980s.
The House of Yawar has been the head of the Shammar tribe for centuries. The Shammar is one of Iraq's biggest tribal confederations with more than 1.5 million people covering vast territories from Iraq into Syria and Saudi Arabia. Composed of both Sunnis and Shiites, the Shammar are generally religiously and politically moderate.[1][2] "My mother would take me to visit the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala, in addition to the Sunni mosques in Baghdad and St. Mary's Church," Yawar told the Iraqi paper Al Zaman. This had an impact on al-Yawar's leadership approach later in his political career, and one that made a lasting impression. According to Jaffar Saheb Said, an elder at the northern Baghdad shrine of Imam Kadhem, a Shiite saint, "he's deep-rooted and well-known among Arab clans. He's able to navigate between both Shias and Sunnis and solve their problems."[3]
His uncle, Sheikh Mohsen Ajil al-Yawar, is the current head of the Shammar tribe and his grandfather played a role in guiding Iraq towards independence in the 1920s, later serving as a member of the king's parliament.[1] When al-Yawar's uncle refused to sanction Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 the family went into exile in London.[4] Al-Yawar, who was then residing in Saudi Arabia, eschewed politics and instead established a successful telecommunications company. He spent much of the past two decades in Saudi Arabia, where he became vice president of a telecommunications company High Capabilities Co. (HiCap).[1]
Post-presidency[edit]
Al-Yawar held the position as President of Iraq in an interim capacity until an elected Iraqi Parliament could select a new permanent president, as mandated in the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period. This happened on 6 April 2005 when Jalal Talabani was elected president, and al-Yawar, after much negotiation, accepted to serve as one of Iraq's two vice-presidents.
As vice-president, Sheikh Ghazi addressed some of the many challenges faced by the new government. Due to the boycott of elections by Iraqi Sunnis, al-Yawar stood by his conviction that the new constitution should not be written in light of the past elections that created a unique situation – a complete sector of the Iraqi people were unable to partake in them. The election results were to be taken as the basis for a balance in drafting a constitution for all Iraqis. The constitution, as al-Yawar said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, "was meant to be always for all the Iraqis and to look after them all and not be 100 percent the whims of a group, religion, or ideology but must have more common ground and denominators for the Iraqi people." At this time, al-Yawar called for a separation between religion and politics, believing religion is too sacred to be polluted by politics. "Religion directs the country towards the public welfare and love while politics is much planning, maneuvers, prevarications and compromises and it is inappropriate for it to put on the cloak of religion."[15]
In the January 2005 Iraqi election for the Iraqi National Assembly, he was the leader of The Iraqis (Iraqioun), the largest secular list of candidates with a Sunni leader. His list won about 150,000 votes, 2% of the national vote. Al-Yawar, one of only a handful of Sunni leaders that did not boycott the elections and the only Sunni figure of national standing who appeared to have secured a place in the assembly, took five seats in Parliament.[16]
In the January 2006 election, he joined the Iraqi National List coalition with other secular politicians Ayad Allawi and Adnan Pachachi. He then became a member of the Iraqi Parliament and after a short period of time resigned from the Parliament to return to his private life. Although it was hard to find research or polling on the subject, a few Sunni commentators, such as "Riverbend" of Baghdad Burning, suggested that Ghazi al-Yawer's poor showing in the elections was largely because he was held in low esteem by common Sunni Iraqis, being called by the epithet "al Baqara al dhahika", which translates roughly as "the laughing cow".
Personal life[edit]
Al-Yawar has been married since 1984 and has four children.
Media related to Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer at Wikimedia Commons