Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer

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**Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer**

Date of Birth:	1958
Date of Death:	–
Interim President of Iraq
Tenure Order:	None
Took Office:	May 17, 2004 – April 7, 2005
Predecessor:	None - Iraqi Interim Government
Successor:	None - Jalal Talabani as State President

Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer (Arabic: غازي مشعل عجيل الياور) a member of the Shammar tribe (born 11 March 1958 in Mosul, Iraq) was a Vice President of Iraq under the Iraqi Transitional Government of 2005-2006, and was President of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government from 2004 to 2005.

He was originally a member of the Iraqi Governing Council created following the US-led 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. His uncle, Shaykh Muhsin al-Yawar is the current head of the Shammar tribe and his grandfather played a role in guiding Iraq towards independence in the 1920s. He studied in the King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (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.

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. Iyad Allawi, who served as Prime Minister during al-Yawer's presidency, is a Shiite Muslim; the two collectively represented Iraq's largest religious groups.

In the January 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. Although it's hard to find research or polling on the subject, a few Sunni commentators, such as "Riverbend" of Baghdad Burning, suggest that this poor showing was largely due to the fact that he is held in low esteem by common Sunni Iraqis, being called by the epithet "al Baqara al dhahika", which translates roughly as "the laughing cow".

In December he joined the Iraqi National List coalition with other secular politicians Iyad Allawi and Adnan Pachachi.

His brother, Faris Mashal al-Yawir, is the Iraq ambassador to the UAE.

Preceded by: Coalition Provisional Authority	President of Iraq June 28, 2004 – April 6, 2005	Succeeded by: Jalal Talabani
Preceded by: Iraqi Interim Government	Vice President of Iraq April 6, 2005 – April 22, 2006	Succeeded by: Tariq al-Hashimi