36 Facts About Ayad Allawi

Ayad Allawi served as the vice president of Iraq from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018.

Ayad Allawi became Iraq's first head of government since Saddam Hussein when the council dissolved on 1 June 2004, and named him Prime Minister of the Iraqi Interim Government.

Ayad Allawi survived assassination attempts in 1978, in 2004, and on 20 April 2005.

Ayad Allawi was born in 1944 to a prominent Shiite merchant family; his grandfather helped to negotiate Iraq's independence from Britain and his father was an Iraqi Member of Parliament.

Ayad Allawi became involved in Ba'athism at a young age and organized against the government of Abdul Karim Qassim.

Ayad Allawi obtained his master's degree at University College in London and performed a residency at Guy's Hospital.

Ayad Allawi has three children, one of them, Hamza, studies in a school in Surrey.

Ayad Allawi is related to Ahmed Chalabi, another prominent former exile who died in 2015, through Chalabi's sister.

The relationship between Chalabi and Ayad Allawi had been described as alternating between rivals and allies.

Ayad Allawi resigned from the Ba'ath party in 1975, "having decided that Saddam was exerting too much control over it".

At first Saddam, then Iraq's vice president, pressured Ayad Allawi, who was in contact with senior military and party officers that were increasingly critical of Saddam, to rejoin the Ba'ath Party.

In February 1978 Ayad Allawi was awoken in bed one night by an intruder in his Surrey home, who proceeded to attack him with an axe.

The intruder left, convinced that Ayad Allawi was dead as he lay in a pool of blood.

Ayad Allawi survived the attempted murder, and spent the next year in hospital recovering from his injuries.

In December 1990, Ayad Allawi announced the existence of the Iraqi National Accord.

Ayad Allawi established links and worked with the CIA in 1992 as a counterpoint to Chalabi, and because of the INA's links in the Ba'athist establishment.

Lands and factories belonging to the Ayad Allawi family were confiscated.

Ayad Allawi was one of those selected to serve on the Governing Council, and held the position of Minister of Defence.

Ayad Allawi held the rotating presidency of the interim governing council during October 2003.

On 28 May 2004, Ayad Allawi was elected unanimously by the Governing Council to be the Interim Prime Minister of Iraq to govern the country beginning with the United States' handover of sovereignty until national elections, scheduled for early 2005.

At the time of his nomination, Ayad Allawi was often described in the US mainstream media as a moderate Shia, a member of Iraq's majority faith, chosen for his secular, national views.

Ayad Allawi's government wrote a new emergency regulation, which allows the executive branch to declare martial law, impose curfews and detain suspects.

Paul Bremer's aides said Ayad Allawi lacked the power to impose martial law, and Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the US would not support such a move.

Ayad Allawi himself has made clear that his government will reach out to Iraqi insurgents who have fought the Coalition for "patriotic motives" while seeking to isolate and destroy foreign elements such as the network led by the Jordanian jihadist Musab al-Zarqawi.

Ayad Allawi knew that both the Sunni insurgency and the one waged by supporters of Shiite firebrand Moqtada Sadr have significant popular support, while his own government has yet to win the loyalty of Iraqis.

Ayad Allawi announced the creation of General Security Directorate, a domestic spy agency, whose main role is to counteract terrorist groups and the Iraqi insurgency.

Ayad Allawi led the Iraqi National Accord during the January 2005 Iraqi election.

Ayad Allawi's campaign was mainly characterised by his attempt to combat the character assassination that was led by Iranian-sponsored groups.

Ayad Allawi's campaign suffered when he visited the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf on 4 December 2004, where an unknown group attacked him.

In preparation for the next parliamentary elections that took place in Iraq in December 2005, Ayad Allawi formed an alliance between many groups, including secular Sunni and Shia groups and the Iraqi Communist Party under one electoral list.

The Iraqi National List was represented in the coalition government led by Nouri al-Maliki, but Ayad Allawi himself did not take a Cabinet post.

In preparation for upcoming national elections, Ayad Allawi formed a new coalition with leading Shia politician Iskander Witwit, Shia tribal Sheikh Hussein al-Shalan, the deputy Prime Minister Rafi al-Issawi, Sunni politician Saleh Mutlaq and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi called the Iraqi National Movement.

Ayad Allawi was appointed one of the three Vice Presidents of Iraq by new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on 8 September 2014.

Ayad Allawi stated on 17 April 2017, that he had received information from Iraqi and regional contacts knowledgeable about Iraq that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group was in talks with al-Qaeda about a possible alliance.

Ayad Allawi added that even if the group lost all of its territory, its insurgency in the form of sleeper cells will continue.

Ayad Allawi allegedly has faced several assassination attempts in England and throughout the Middle East, purportedly by agents of Saddam's regime.