Maliki, Nouri Kamel al-, << MAL ih kee, NOOR ee kah MIHL al >> (1950-…), was prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014. Maliki is a member of the Islamic al-Da`wa Party. Al-Da`wa is part of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the largest political group in Iraq.
Maliki was born on July 1, 1950, in Al Hindiyah, Iraq. He joined al-Da`wa in the 1960’s. In the late 1970’s, al-Da`wa launched military operations against the Iraqi government headed by dictator Saddam Hussein. The government’s brutal response forced many al-Da`wa members, including Maliki, to leave the country. Maliki settled in Iran. In 1989, he left for Damascus, Syria, to run the Syrian branch of al-Da`wa.
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, and Hussein’s government quickly fell from power. Following the U.S. invasion, Maliki returned to Iraq and helped remove members of Hussein’s Baath Party from government, military, and civilian positions. Maliki was elected to the Iraqi National Assembly in 2005 and helped draft the new Iraqi Constitution. In May 2006, Maliki succeeded Ibrahim al-Jafari as prime minister. In March 2010 elections, a Maliki-led coalition narrowly lost to a group led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi. In November, after months of negotiations, a new government was formed with Maliki remaining as prime minister.
Maliki had begun using the name Jawad in the 1970’s to protect his family while he was resisting Hussein’s dictatorship. He returned to his birth name, Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, after being named prime minister.
See also Iraq ; Jafari, Ibrahim al- .
