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Adil Abdul-Mahdi

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Adil Abdul-Mahdi
عادل عبد المهدي
Abdul-Mahdi in 2008
Prime Minister of Iraq
In office
25 October 2018[1] – 7 May 2020
PresidentBarham Salih
Deputy
Preceded byHaider al-Abadi
Succeeded byMustafa Al-Kadhimi
Minister of Oil
In office
8 September 2014 – 19 July 2016
Prime MinisterHaider al-Abadi
Preceded byAbdul Karim Luaibi
Succeeded byJabbar Alluaibi
Vice President of Iraq
In office
7 April 2005 – 11 July 2011
Serving with Ghazi al-Yawer (until 2006) and Tariq al-Hashimi (after 2006)
PresidentJalal Talabani
Preceded byRowsch Shaways
Succeeded byTariq al-Hashimi
Minister of Finance
In office
2 June 2004 – 6 April 2005
Prime MinisterAyad Allawi
Preceded byKamel al-Kilani
Succeeded byAli Allawi
Personal details
BornAdil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki
(1942-01-01) 1 January 1942 (age 84)
Baghdad, Iraq
PartyIndependent (since 2017)[2]
SCIRI (1982–2017)[3]
Iraqi Communist (1970s)[4]
SpouseRajah
Education
Websitet.me/AdiIAbdAlmahdi01

Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki (Arabic: عادل عبد المهدي المنتفكي, born 1 January 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as prime minister of Iraq from October 2018 until May 2020. Abdul-Mahdi is an economist and was one of the vice presidents of Iraq from 2005 to 2011. He formerly served as Minister of Finance in the Interim government and Oil Minister from 2014 to 2016.[5]

Abdul-Mahdi is a former member of the powerful Shi'a party the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC.[2] Long based in neighboring Iran, the group opposed a United States administration while holding close ties with the other, U.S.-backed, groups that opposed Saddam Hussein, including the Kurds and the Iraqi National Congress.

Abdul-Mahdi submitted his formal resignation as prime minister in November 2019, following widespread protests over political corruption and violent police responses.[6]

Background

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Mahdi was born in Baghdad in 1942, the son of a Shiite cleric, Abdul-Mahdi, originally from Dhi Qar Governorate, who was the Minister of Education in Iraq's monarchy, and a mother from Syria.[7] He attended high school at Baghdad College, an elite American Jesuit secondary school. After graduating, he attended Baghdad University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1963. He worked as a secretary for the Iraqi foreign ministry in 1965 and was an early supporter of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, but left due to ideological disagreements. In 1969, he moved to France where he worked for French think tanks and edited magazines in French and Arabic. In 1972 he obtained another Master of Arts degree in political economy from the University of Poitiers. He later obtained a PhD in economics.[8] Abdul-Mahdi is a French citizen, as are his children, and he returned to Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.[9]

Early career

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In the 1970s, Abdul-Mahdi was a leading member of the Iraqi Communist Party.[10] The party split into two separate factions, the ICP-Central Committee, which was more accommodating of the military governments that had ruled Iraq since 1958, and the ICP-Central Leadership, which rejected all forms of cooperation of what it regarded as anti-progressive regimes, in 1967. Abdul-Mahdi joined the ICP-Central Leadership, and continued being active until he was expelled in and formed his own splinter claiming to be the legitimate ICP-Central Leadership. Both the ICP-Central Leadership and Abdul-Mahdi's splinter gradually disappeared by the early 1980s. By that time, Abdul-Mahdi adopted Iranian Islamic ideas, eventually merging with the Islamists when Ayatollah Khomeini eradicated the communists and liberal opposition groups in Iran. Abdul-Mahdi continued his association with Iran and gradually amalgamated his group within the ICP-Central Leadership with the Iranians, rejecting his Marxist past and devoting all his group's time to propagating Khomeini's ideas in France, where he lived at the time. He eventually was made a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an exiled opposition party and militia that was formed by Iran in Tehran in 1982 but composed exclusively of Iraqi exiles.[11]

Vice-president

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In 2006, Abdul-Mahdi, outgoing Vice President in the transitional government, unsuccessfully ran for the United Iraqi Alliance's nomination for Prime Minister against incumbent Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He lost by one vote. He was reportedly considered to be a possibility for Prime Minister once again until Nouri al-Maliki became the UIA nominee. Subsequently, Abdul-Mahdi was re-elected as Vice President of Iraq. He exerted his limited authority in that role by delaying the first meeting of the National Assembly in March.[12]

On 26 February 2007, he survived an assassination attempt that killed ten people. He had been targeted two times prior.[13]

Abdul-Mahdi meets with U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in Baghdad, Iraq on 9 January 2019.

In 2009, his bodyguards were the perpetrators of a bloody bank robbery in Baghdad.[14]

He resigned from his position as vice-president on 31 May 2011.[12] In July 2013, Abdul-Mahdi announced his decision to give up his retirement pensions as a former vice president.[15]

Prime minister

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On 2 October 2018, Iraqi president Barham Salih selected Abdul-Mahdi to be the Prime Minister of Iraq. Mahdi had 30 days to form a new government.[2] On 25 October 2018, Abdul Mahdi was sworn into office, five months after the 2018 elections.[16]

In April 2019, Abdul-Mahdi met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. He announced a $14 billion plan to upgrade Iraq's electricity infrastructure, with likely cooperation with German company Siemens. Merkel also pledged to strengthen economic and security cooperation between the two countries, and to continue German support for reconstruction efforts in Iraq.[17]

On 29 November 2019, after weeks of violent protests, Mahdi stated that he would resign from his post.[18][19] The Iraqi parliament approved his resignation on 1 December 2019. After leaving office, Abdul-Mahdi remained active in regional political affairs. In March 2025, he visited Sanaa, Yemen, to attend the Houthi-organized conference "Palestine: The Central Issue of the Umma". Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the visit prompted speculation in Iraq about its purpose and political meaning.[20] The Washington Institute described the visit as part of Abdul-Mahdi's growing political role on behalf of Iraqi militias, particularly Kata'ib Hezbollah.[21]

References

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  1. ↑ "H.E. Prime Minister Adil Abd Al-Mahdi receives a call from U.S secretary of Defense Mark Esper". www.pmo.iq. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Salaheddin, Sinah (3 October 2018). "Iraq tasks Shiite independent with forming new government". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "عادل عبد المهدي". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 2 May 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  4. ↑ Doug Struck (14 February 2015). "Prospective Iraqi Premier a Man of Many Labels". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 January 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  5. ↑ Chulov, Martin (3 October 2018). "Iraqi president names Adel Abdul-Mahdi as next prime minister". The Guardian.
  6. ↑ Rubin, Alissa J.; Hassan, Falih (30 November 2019). "Iraqi Prime Minister Resigns in Deepening Political Crisis". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 30 November 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  7. ↑ "Iraq's consensus prime minister walks a political tightrope". www.ft.com. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  8. ↑ Adil Adbul Mahdi Iraq’s New Prime Minister Archived 31 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ MacDonald, Alex (9 April 2021). "Iraq: Activists hopeful in French legal case against former PM Abdul Mahdi". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  10. ↑ "Abdul-Mahdi: The man tasked with forming Iraq's new government". Rudaw. 3 October 2018. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  11. ↑ Ismail, Tariq (2008). The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq. Cambridge University Press. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-521-87394-9.
  12. 1 2 "اخبار رسیده از بغداد پایتخت عراق حاکی از آن است که "عادل عبدالمهدی" از سمت خود استعفا داد". tabnak.ir (in Persian). Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  13. ↑ Sly, Liz (27 February 2007). "VP survives assassination try in Iraq". Chicago Tribune. Baghdad. Archived from the original on 1 December 2024. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  14. ↑ Rod Nordland; Riyadh Mohammed (2 September 2009). "In Bank Killings, Highs and Lows of Iraq Justice". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  15. ↑ Hussein, Ahmed (30 July 2013). "Adil Abdul Mahdi gives up his pensions". Iraqi News. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  16. ↑ "Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi sworn in with 14 ministers, so far". Rudaw.
  17. ↑ Şimşek, Ayhan (30 April 2019). "Merkel: Germany supports territorial integrity of Iraq". Anadolu Agency. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  18. ↑ Iraqi PM says he will resign after weeks of killing protests Archived 4 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine - Guardian(29 November 2019)
  19. ↑ Iraq unrest: PM Abdul Mahdi to resign after bloodiest day in protests Archived 3 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine - BBC(29 December 2019)
  20. ↑ al-Nashmi, Fadel (23 March 2025). "ما «مضمون» زيارة عادل عبد المهدي اليمن؟". Asharq Al-Awsat (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 17 May 2025. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  21. ↑ "Abdulmahdi in Yemen: An Emerging Militia Godfather". The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 28 March 2025. Archived from the original on 17 May 2026. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
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