Ministry of Defence (Iraq)
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Ministry of Defence insignia
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Department overview | |
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Formed | February 22, 2004 (As modern department) |
Jurisdiction | Iraq |
Headquarters | Baghdad |
Minister responsible |
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The Ministry of Defence (Arabic: وزارة الدفاع العراقية) is the Iraq government agency responsible for Defence of Iraq. It is also involved with internal security.
Contents
Authority
The Ministry directs all the Iraqi Armed Forces, comprising a Joint Headquarters, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command (which controls the Army), the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Navy (including Marines), and the Iraqi Air Force.[1]
History
The Ministry was dissolved by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 of mid-2003. It was formally re-established by CPA Order 61 of February 22, 2004. In the interim period, the CPA Office of Security Affairs served as the de facto Ministry of Defence.[2]
The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau directs the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Command, which is a further military force answerable to the Prime Minister of Iraq directly. As of 30 June 2009, there had been legislation in progress for a year to make the Iraqi CTB a separate ministry.[3]
Minister of Defense
The position of Minister of Defense was left vacant in the previous Iraqi cabinet, approved on 21 December 2010. While it is vacant, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki served as the acting defense minister. Saadoun al-Dulaimi later served as Minister of Defense from 2011 to 2014. Khaled al-Obaidi currently serves as defense minister in the Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
The previous Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Abd al-Qadr Muhammed Jassim al-Obaidi, is a Sunni career military officer and political independent. He had limited experience and faced a number of hurdles impeding his effective governance. Some of the major problems included inheriting a staff that is notorious for favorism, corruption, and deeply divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. He was a rival of the former Minister of the Interior Jawad al-Bolani, National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubai, and Minister of Staff for National Security Affairs Shirwan al-Waili. He has been criticized for not being able to stand up to the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army members which dominate his own party. In addition, as a Sunni he faced inherent challenges working within a Shiite-dominated government.
On September 19, 2005, The Independent reported that approximately one billion US dollars have been stolen by top ranking officials from the Ministry of Defense including Hazim al-Shaalan and Ziyad Cattan.[4]
Previous defence ministers under Saddam Hussein's regime included Ali Hassan al-Majid ('Chemical Ali'). Iraq's very first minister of defence was Jafar al-Askari (1920-1922).
List of Ministers of Defense
Ministers of Defense 1921 - 1958
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
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Jafar al-Askari | 23 October 1920 | 16 November 1922 | Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani | ||||
Nuri as-Said | 20 November 1922 | 2 August 1924 | |||||
Yasin al-Hashimi | 2 August 1924 | 2 June 1925 | |||||
Nuri as-Said | 26 June 1925 | 8 January 1928 | |||||
Abd al-Muhsin as-Sa'dun | 14 January 1928 | 20 January 1929 | |||||
Muhammad Amin Zaki | 28 April 1929 | 25 August 1929 | |||||
Nuri al-Sa’id | 19 September 1929 | 19 March 1930 | |||||
Ja’far al-‘Askari | 23 March 1930 | 27 October 1932 | |||||
Rashid al-Khawja | 3 November 1932 | 18 March 1933 | |||||
Jalal Baban | 20 March 1933 | 28 October 1933 |
Ministers of Defense 1958 - 1968
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Political party | President | |||
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Abd al-Karim Qasim | 14 July 1958 | 8 February 1963 | Independent | Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i | |||
Salah Mahdi Ammash | 8 February 1963 | 10 November 1963 | Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
Abdul Salam Arif | |||
Hardan al-Tikriti | 10 November 1963 | 2 March 1964 | |||||
Tahir Yahya | 2 March 1964 | 3 September 1965 | Arab Socialist Union | ||||
Arif Abd ar-Razzaq | 6 September 1965 | 16 September 1965 | Arab Socialist Union | ||||
Abd al-'Aziz al-'Uqaili | 21 September 1965 | 18 April 1966 | |||||
Shakir Mahmud Shukri | 18 April 1966 | 17 July 1968 | Abdul Rahman Arif |
Ministers of Defense 1968 - 2003
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Political party | President | |||
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Ibrahim Abdel Rahman Dawoud | 17 July 1968 | 30 July 1968 | Independent | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr | |||
Hardan al-Tikriti | 30 July 1968 | April 1970 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Hammad Shihab | April 1970 | 30 June 1973 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Abdullah al-Khadduri (acting) | 30 June 1973 | 11 November 1974 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr | 11 November 1974 | 15 October 1977 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Adnan Khairallah | 15 October 1977 | 4 May 1989 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
Saddam Hussein | |||
Abdel Jabbar Khalil Shanshal | 4 May 1989 | 1990 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Saadi Tuma Abbas | 1990 | 1991 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Ali Hassan al-Majid | 1991 | 1995 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
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Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai | 1995 | 2003 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party (Iraq Region) |
Ministers of Defense 2003 - present
Name | Portrait | Term of office | Political party | Prime Minister | |||
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Ali Allawi | April 2004 | June 2004 | Independent | Ayad Allawi | |||
Hazim al-Shaalan | June 2004 | 1 June 2005 | Iraqi National Congress | ||||
Saadoun al-Dulaimi | 1 June 2005 | 6 March 2006 | Independent | Ibrahim al-Jaafari | |||
Qadir Obeidi | 6 March 2006 | 21 December 2010 | Independent | Nouri al-Maliki | |||
Nouri al-Maliki | 21 December 2010 | 17 August 2011 | State of Law Coalition | ||||
Saadoun al-Dulaimi | 17 August 2011 | October 2014 | Unity Alliance of Iraq | ||||
Khaled al-Obaidi | October 2014 | Unity Alliance of Iraq | Haider al-Abadi |
Notes
- ↑ United States Department of Defense, Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq, Report to Congress, June 2007, p.37
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Montrose Toast, Iraqi Counter Terrorism Bureau, 30 June 2009
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
- RAND, 'Developing Iraq's Security Sector: The Coalition Provisional Authority's Experience,' 2005, p. 27-32
External links
- Ministry of Defense
- Ministry of Defense (Arabic)