Adil Abdul-Mahdi

Infobox Vice President
name=Adil (Adel) Abdul-Mahdi
عادل عبدالمهدي


imagesize=200px
order=1st Vice President of Iraq
term_start=April, 2005
president=Jalal Talabani
predecessor= Ibrahim Jaafari and Rowsch Shaways (interim)
successor="incumbent"
birth_date=1942
birth_place=Baghdad, Iraq
party=Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC)
spouse=|

Adil (Adel) Abdul-Mahdi (al Muntafiki) ( _ar. عادل عبد المهدى ) (born 1942 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi Shi'a politician, economist, and is one of the two current Vice Presidents of Iraq. He was formerly the Finance Minister in the Interim government.

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

Background

He is a trained economist who left Iraq in 1969 for exile in France. He worked for French think tanks and edited magazines in French and Arabic. Adel Abdul Mahdi is also referred to as Adel Abd al'Mahdi, as well as other various derivations (this highlights the continual difficulties of transliteration from Arabic into English). Abdul-Mahdi was educated in France, and is the son of a respected Shiite cleric who was a minister in Iraq's monarchy. He attended high school at Baghdad College, an elite American Jesuit secondary school.

Iraqi Politics

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.

In December 2006, the Associated Press reported that Abdul-Mahdi could be the next Prime Minister of Iraq if a new multi-sectarian coalition succeeds in toppling the government of Nouri al-Maliki. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000633.html]

On February 26, 2007, he survived an assassination attempt that killed ten people. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq]

References

External links

* [http://www.sciri.ws/ SCIRI Website]
* [http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2004/06/01/rtr1390670.html Iraq's new Finance minster, from Forbes]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4263087.stm Iraq Shias move to form coalition]
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2005/04/12/iraq/whoswho687537_0_4_person.shtml CBS News Adil Abdul-Mahdi]