The New Administration

Staff reports and news services
Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Here are the top leaders appointed to run Iraq on an interim basis:

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, 58
• A Shiite who left Iraq in 1971 to study in Britain and went into exile after a falling-out with Baath Party strongman Saddam Hussein.
• He trained as a neurologist in Britain, where he survived a Hussein-ordered assassination attempt in 1978.
• Co-founded the Iraqi National Accord, an anti-Hussein exile group that brought together former members of the president's Baath Party and military commanders opposed to Hussein's dictatorship.
• His grandfather helped negotiate Iraq's independence from Britain in 1920.

President Ghazi Yawar, 45
• A Sunni and a chief of the Shamar tribe. Moved to Saudi Arabia with his family in the mid-1980s and returned after the overthrow of Hussein.
• Trained as a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia, then in the United States.
• Strong ties to Washington, but has been critical of the occupation.

Vice President Ibrahim Jafari
• A leader of the Shiite Dawa Islamic party.

Vice President Rowsch Schaways
• Parliament speaker of the Kurdish autonomous region in Irbil and a member of Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two rival parties running northern Iraq.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zubari, 51
• A leader of the other main Iraqi Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Was appointed foreign minister last September and will continue in the post.
• Grew up in Mosul and studied in Britain.

Deputy Prime Minister for National Security Affairs Barham Salih
• A leader of one of the main Iraqi Kurdish groups, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
• Considered close to the occupation authorities.

Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, 56
• Born in the southern Iraq city of Diwaniyah. Earned degrees in economics and management from Baghdad University. Left Iraq in 1985 because of opposition to Hussein and returned in April 2003.

Interior Minister Falah Hassan, 48
• A Sunni whose father, a general, served as deputy chief of staff under Hussein. Was a member of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress in exile, but later joined the Iraqi National Movement, a Sunni-dominated group.
• Trained as a civil engineer.

Finance Minister Adil Abdel-Mahdi
• French-educated son of a respected Shiite cleric who was a minister in Iraq's monarchy.
• Official of the powerful Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Oil Minister Thamir Ghadbhan
• Has been directing oil matters for months, since first being appointed by the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

Justice Minister Malik Dohan Hassan
• As elected president of Iraq's Lawyers League after Saddam's fall, had lodged early protests about the conditions under which the U.S.-led occupation administration was holding prisoners and about the prisoners' lack of legal defense. Had been a political prisoner under Saddam.
• Was culture minister in the mid-1960s.