Iraq’s New Cabinet: Problems and Personalities

The new Iraqi Cabinet formed at the beginning of September was hailed as a step forward in handing over administration to Iraqis, but it nonetheless has some curious features. It was appointed by the Iraqi Governing Council (GC), which was itself, of course, created under the aegis of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). (For the Governing Council, See the Dossier, “Iraq’s New Governing Council” in The Estimate for July 11, 2003.) Like the Governing Council, it is a carefully balanced body of 25 men and women chosen to reflect the ethnic, confessional and partisan makeup of non-Ba‘athist Iraq, and it includes a substantial number of individuals from the exile community. There are 13 Shi‘ites, though again a mix of secular and religious; five Sunni Arabs; five Kurds; one Christian (Assyrian), and one Turkoman (Turkmen).

Since the Cabinet was chosen by the Governing Council, it is hardly surprising that the members are in many cases close allies of members of the Council (including one son and one brother-in-law of members, perhaps more); they represent approximately the same balance of political parties and movements as did the membership of the Governing Council.

This Dossier looks at the new Cabinet and some of the key members thereof.

It is hardly surprising that many Western commentators have been somewhat disturbed by the continuing tendency to “balance” new Iraqi institutions confessionally and ethnically, but it is difficult to know what other approach would work until such time as democratic elections are practicable.

Naturally, many observers are bothered by memories of Lebanon. Lebanon carried the concept of confessional balance to the extreme of writing it into the National Pact (and subsequently, the Ta’if accords that ended the civil war): the President would always be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim, the Speaker of Parliament a Shi‘ite Muslim, and the balance of Parliament would be allocated between Christians and Muslims according to a set formula. Although it seems improbable on the surface that such a system could work very well, it preserves some aspects of the historic system under which minority communities in the Middle East maintained their own quarters and legal systems (what the Ottomans called the millet system).

The system penetrated many other realms besides politics, even to the number of Army brigades commanded by officers of a certain confessional or ethnic identity.

Intended initially as a means of avoiding civil war or oppression of minorities, the Lebanese attempt failed for the very good reason that it had no provision for revising the system as the structure of society changed. The pre-1975 Lebanese system preserved the mythology that Maronites were the largest single group and that Christians were an overall majority of the country; and that among Muslims, Sunnis outnumbered Shi‘ites. But the Shi‘ite population had grown out of proportion to the others and not only were Muslims a majority, but Shi‘ites outnumbered Sunnis. The system collapsed because there was no way to revise it until the Ta’if accords, which were concluded only under Syrian guns.

Though there is some reason for concern that the early efforts to create institutions in Iraq have some odor of Lebanon about them, no one pretends that the breakdown of the Governing Council and Cabinet will be set in stone; these are interim bodies meant to represent the varying elements in Iraq until such time as elections may be held. Elections would presumably produce representatives reflecting the overall ethnic makeup, but not as rigidly as is presently the case.

As this was written, it was still not entirely clear how much power the ministers of the interim Cabinet will exercise. Supposedly they will be responsible for determining their ministries’ budgets next year (the CPA does that this year), but with growing pressure for an early election, the interim Cabinet’s role may be expected to change. In fact, since it is clear that the US has been rethinking its approach for some time — it created the Governing Council before it had originally intended to, and appears to have done the same with the Cabinet — the exact powers wielded by the Cabinet at the moment may well be expected to change.

Although the “balancing” issue of providing a fixed number of Sunnis, Shi‘ites, Kurds, and the one Christian and Turkoman to maintain the balance found on the Governing Council was adhered to in choosing the cabinet, that does not mean that the new ministers are mere placeholders. Some members of the new Cabinet are experienced hands. The new Oil Minister is a petroleum engineer, though he also happens to be the son of a key Shi‘ite cleric. The Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, has been doing the same job for the Kurdistan Democratic Party for years.

There is no Defense Minister; defense power is retained by the coalition.

Now that the Arab League has accepted the Governing Council as an interim authority for Iraq, the role of the Cabinet internationally may also be expected to increase. The ministers profiled below may, in some cases, become familiar faces to all.

The Interim Iraqi Cabinet: Profiles

Presidency:

The new Iraqi Cabinet has no Prime Minister as such: it is instead presided over by the President of the Governing Council. That job rotates among nine senior figures on the Governing Council, each serving for a period of a month. Thus the new Cabinet was inaugurated by the outgoing President for last month, Ibrahim al-Ja‘fari; Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, who is the rotating President of the Governing Council for September, will preside during September, though it was not initially clear how often the Cabinet would meet as a body. The rotating presidency consists of Chalabi (Shi‘i), Supreme Council for the Islamic Republic in Iraq head ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Hakim (Shi‘i) , Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani (Kurd), Kurdistan Democratic Party head Mas‘ud Barzani (Kurd), Da‘wa Party figure Ibrahim al-Ja‘fari (Shi‘i), Iraq National Accord Secretary General ‘Iyad ‘Allawi (Shi‘i), Iraqi Islamic Party Secretary General Muhsin ‘Abd al-Hamid (Sunni); Muhammad Bahr al-‘Ulum (Shi‘i), and ‘Adnan Pachachi (Sunni). Like the Governing Council and the Cabinet, the rotating Presidency seeks to balance ethnic/confessional groups with five Shi‘ites, two Sunni Arabs, and two Kurds.

Only limited information has been immediately available about some of the new Cabinet ministers, while others are quite well known.

Foreign Minister: Hoshyar Zebari. The Foreign Minister, who was seated at the recent Arab League meeting following that body’s vote to recognize the Governing Council on a provisional basis as the government of Iraq, is Hoshyar Zebari, longtime spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Mas‘ud Barzani. Zebari (Zubari, Zabari) is of course a Kurd. He was born in 1953 in the town of ‘Aqra in Dohuk Governorate, took his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Oregon, and holds a Master’s in development from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, received in 1979. He is a member of the KDP’s Central Committee and its Political Bureau, and since 1988 has headed the KDP’s International Relations Bureau.

Petroleum Minister: Ibrahim Muhammad Bahr al-‘Ulum. The new oil minister is the son of Muhammad Bahr al-‘Ulum, the octogenarian Shi‘ite cleric and head of the Ahl al-Bayt organization; the father is also a member of the Governing Council and of the rotating Presidency. The son, who is of course a Shi‘ite, may have been chosen in part due to his father, but is in fact a petroleum specialist. He is 49 years old and was born in Najav; he has a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering and mining from Baghdad University and both a Master’s and a Doctorate in Petroleum Engineering from the University of New Mexico, the doctorate completed in 1991. He has previously worked on developing and restoring oil wells in Kuwait and the Rumaila field on the Kuwait-Iraq border.

Interior Minister: Nuri Badran. Nuri Badran is a Shi‘ite member of ‘Iyad ‘Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord and is understood to be ‘Allawi’s brother-in-law. (‘Allawi is a member of the Governing Council and also of the rotating presidency.) Badran was born in Basra in 1943, took his political science degree in 1964 and worked as a journalist and writer, then as a diplomat. He left Iraq after the Kuwait war and oined the INA, which consists in large part of ex-Ba‘athists and military men who broke with the regime in the early 1990s. He is a secular Shi‘ite.

Minister of Finance and Banking: Kamil Mubdir al-Kaylani. A Sunni Arab, the 44-year-old Kaylani was born in Baghdad and educated the Mustansiriyya University’s Department of Administration and Economics. He worked in the private sector as a contractor in Baghdad.

Communications Minister: Haydar (or Hussein) al-‘Abadi. Shi‘ite.

Minister of Trade: ‘Ali ‘Allawi. Shi‘ite.

Minister of Planning: Mahdi al-Hafiz. A Shi‘ite, Hafiz is an economist who has worked with the United Nations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, a master’s in social sciences and a doctorate in economics. He worked in the Iraqi Oil Ministry from 1975 to 1979, and served in the Iraqi delegation to the United Nations in Geneva in 1978-80.

Minister of Education: ‘Ala’ ‘Abd al-Sahib al-‘Alwan. ‘Alwan, a 54-year-old Shi‘ite from Baghdad, studied medicine at the University of Alexandria in Egypt and practiced in Britain, later becoming a professor and subsequently dean of the College of Medicine at Mustansiriyya University in Baghdad in 1990-91. He has held a number of medical positions including heading heading the World Health Organization’s office in Jordan in 1995-97 and in Geneva in 1997-1999.

Minister of Culture: Mufid Muhammad Jawwad al-Jaza’iri. A 64-year-old Shi‘ite from Babylon, Jaza’iri holds a Master’s in Journalism from the University of Prague, who served with the Czech Arabic service as a broadcaster in the 1960s and 1970s.

Minister of Agriculture: ‘Abd al-Amir ‘Abbud Rahima. Shi‘ite.

Minister of Public Works: Nasreen Mustafa Siddiq Barwari. Barwari is the only woman in the interim Cabinet (there are three on the Governing Council). Imprisoned by the regime at the age of 14, she belongs to the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Mas‘ud Barzani and had served as Minister of Reconstruction and Development in the Kurdish Regional Government. A graduate of the University of Baghdad, she has also worked with the United Nations. In 1999 she received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Minister of Water Resources: Latif Rashid. Rashid has been the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Representative in London and its representative in the Iraqi National Congress.

Minister of Youth and Sports: ‘Ali Fa’iq al-‘Ghadban. Shi‘ite.

Minister of Health: Khudayyir ‘Abbas. Shi‘ite.

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs: Sami ‘Azara Al Ma‘jun. A 71 year old Shi‘ite from Samawa. He trained in law and served as a legal advisor to the Ministry of Justice in Saudi Arabia during the years 1971-1980.

Ministry of Emigration and Immigration Affairs: Muhammad Jasim Khudayyir. A Shi‘ite.

Minister of Electricity: Ayham al-Samarra’i. Sunni Arab, a member of ‘Adnan Pachachi’s Democratic Centrist Tendency.

Minister of Human Rights: ‘Abd al-Basit al-Turki. Sunni Arab.

Ministry of Industry and Mining: Muhammad Tawfiq Rahim. Kurd.

Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications: Behnam Zia Bulis. Bulis, an Assyrian, is the only Christian in the Cabinet. A 59-year-old with a degree in civl engineering from the Technical University in 1967, he has been a businessman and administrator in the public sector.

Ministry of Construction and Housing: Bayan Baqir Solagh. The sole Turkoman in the Cabinet.

Minister of Science and Technology: Rashad Mandan ‘Umar.

Minister of Justice: Hisham ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shalabi. Shi‘ite.

Minister of the Environment: ‘Abd al-Rahman Siddiq Karim. Kurdish.

Minister of Higher Education: Ziyad ‘Abd al-Razzaq Muhammad Aswad. Sunni Arab.

To summarize in another way, the ethnic/confessional groups hold the following posts. Shi‘ites: Interior, Oil, Communications, Justice, Trade, Planning, Education, Culture, Agriculture, Youth and Sports, Health, Labor and Social Affairs, and Emigration and Immigration. Sunnis: Finance, Electricity, Technology, Human Rights, Higher Education. Kurds: Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Environment, Industry and Mines, Water Resources. Christians: Transportation and Telecommunications. Turkmen: Construction and Housing.

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