Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer

Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer (born 1958? in Mosul, Iraq) is a Vice-President of Iraq under the Iraqi Transitional Government of 2005, and was President of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government from 2004 to 2005.

He was originally a member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council created following the United States's 2003 invasion of Iraq. As President of the Council, in 2004 he was appointed by the council to serve as interim President of Iraq following the June 28 return of Iraqi sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority.

A Sunni Muslim and Shamar tribal leader, al-Yawer is a civil engineer by training. He studied in the King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (formally, KFUPM) for the first 2 years, then finished his BSc in the UK. He enrolled in an English language program at American University in Washington, D.C. and then took his masters at George Washington University in the mid 1980s. While in Washington recently to meet at the White House, he met with professors and administrators at American University.

He was a good friend of Sa'ad I. Al-Qeshtaini, an Information Security Consultant and famed IT specialist in Saudi Arabia. Ghazi spent much of the past two decades in Saudi Arabia, where he became vice president of Hicap Technology Co.

Following the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Ghazi sold his business and returned to Iraq and was appointed a member of the Interim Governing Council by the United States occupational authority. A close relative of Mohsen Adil al-Yawar, he became rotating President of the Council on May 17, 2004, having been chosen in an emergency meeting following the assassination of Ezzedine Salim.

He was scheduled to be the last holder of the rotating council presidency, with a term lasting until June 30, 2004, the date of the expected transition to official Iraqi sovereignty. Instead, he was chosen at an earlier date to be Iraq's formal Head of State, and occupy the largely symbolic post of "State President" of Iraq. He held this position in an interim capacity until an elected Iraqi parliament could select a new permanent president, as mandated in the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period. This happened on April 6 2005 when Jalal Talabani was elected president, and al-Yawer, after much negotiation, was made one of Iraq's two vice-presidents. He and the Iraqi Interim Government were sworn in on June 28, 2004, when the U.S.-led coalition handed over power two days early.

His appointment as interim President came at the advice of a UN special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi, who chose Ghazi in recognition of his age and stature, and the fact that he was a moderate Sunni Muslim. Iraq's new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, is a Shiite Muslim; the two collectively represent Iraq's largest religious groups.

In the 2005 Iraqi election he was the leader of The Iraqis, the largest Sunni list of candidates. His list won about 150,000 votes in Iraqi National Assembly elections, 2% of the national vote.

His grandfather played a role in guiding Iraq towards independence in the 1920s.

See also

• List of national leaders