• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Iraqi Cabinet - 2003

On 01 September 2003 the Iraqi Governing Council announced a cabinet of 25 ministers. The provisional authorities hoped the cabinet would speed up the process through which Iraqis assumed more responsibilities for governing the country. Biographies of only 10 of the 25 new cabinet ministers were immediately available.

The cabinet was divided along ethnic and sectarian lines, much like the Governing Council itself. Shi'ite Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of the Iraqi population, held 13 ministerial posts, including Oil, Interior and Trade. Sunni Muslims held five ministries, including Finance, and Labor. Kurdish leaders also held five ministries, including Foreign Affairs, while Turkomen and Christians received one ministry each. Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) Executive Council member Aydin Beyatli complained of the fact that only one ministry was given to Turkmen in the new Iraqi cabinet. Beyatli said this was contrary to the principle of fair representation as Turkmens represent 13 percent of the Iraqi population.

The cabinet did not have ministries of defense or information. These agencies, which included many of the former regime's most feared security services, were being reorganized. Nor did the Cabinet have a ministry of religious affairs, in deference to the sectarian tensions that were part of the legacy of the Saddam Hussein era.

The chairman of the Governing Council, which rotated on a monthly basis, acted as prime minister. The leader of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed Chalabi, initially took over the chairmanship.

Culture Minister Mufid Mohammad Jawad al-Jazairi is 64 years old. Born in Babel, he received a masters degree in journalism in Prague where he worked for the Arab service of Czech radio in the 1960s and 1970s.

Education Minister Alaa Abdessaheb al-Alwan is a 54 year old Shiite. A native of Baghdad, he studied medicine in Egypt and England before joining the medical school at Mustansariyah University in Baghdad, where he served as dean from 1990 to 1991. He subsequently worked for the World Health Organisation in Jordan and then in Geneva.

Finance Minister Kamal al-Kilani is a 44 year old Sunni Muslim from Baghdad. He is a businessman, and has a masters degree in economics and public administration from Baghdad's Mustansariyah University.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari is a 50 year old born in the Kurdish town of Aqrah. A top aide and uncle of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani, Zebari belongs to the KDP's leadership council. He studied political science in Jordan, and received a masters degree in social development from the University of Essex in Britain.

Interior Minister Nuri Badran is a career diplomat and native of the main southern city of Basra. Badran served in Iraq's foreign service and was Iraq's's ambassador to Russia before he broke with Saddam Hussein's regime in 1990 over the invasion of Kuwait. He moved to London and joined former Baathist Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord Movement.

Labor and Social Affairs Minister Sami Azara al-Majun is a 71 year old Shiite from the southern city of Samawa. A lawyer by training, he worked for the Justice Ministry in Saudi Arabia between 1971 and 1980.

Oil Minister Ibrahim Mohammad Bahr al-Uloom is the 48 year old son of Shiite cleric Mohammad Bahr al-Uloom. He suspended his membership in the Governing Council in anger over the deadly bomb blast in Najaf. With a doctorate in petroleum engineering from the University of New Mexico, he worked in Kuwait's oil fields and in the United States before taking up his post.

Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafez is an economic and foreign relations expert. With a doctorate in economics, he worked in Iraq's oil ministry between 1975 and 1977, and represented Iraq at the UN in New York from 1978 to 1980.

Public Works Minister Nisrin Mustafa al-Barwari is a Kurd from Arbil and a close ally of Barzani. She previously worked as an engineer for the UN and the government in the KDP-controlled province of Arbil.

Transport Minister Bahnam Zaya Bulos is a 59 year old Christian civil engineer from Baghdad, where he previously worked in the private sector.

The Governing Council appointed at least five women as deputy ministers. The decision to appoint five women as deputy ministers came to fill the vacuum because the ministerial formation has no female elements except one ministry from Kurdistan Democratic Party.

By 10 April 2004 Iraq's interim health minister stated that Abd-al Basit Turki, the country's human rights minister, had resigned.

Following a special Governing Council meeting in Baghdad 28 May 2004, the council announced that it had unanimously nominated one of its own members, Shiite Muslim politician Iyad Allawi, as its choice for prime minister of an interim government that will take power in Iraq on June 30th. Most Iraqis here say they did not hear the news about the prime minister-designate until the next morning. The nomination of this former exile with close ties to the United States to become the country's interim prime minister met with with mixed reactions from Iraqis. The selection process for the interim government has been overseen by the United Nations, in close consultation with the United States. Observers here say Iyad Allawi's membership in the U-S-appointed Governing Council, his links to Western intelligence agencies and his years in exile could prove controversial among Iraqis, who remain suspicious of politicians who lived abroad and received Western backing.