Nuri al-Maliki Fast Facts

CNN Editorial Research

Here’s a look at the life of Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Personal

Birth date: July 1, 1950

Birth place: Hindiya, Iraq (some sources say Hilla)

Birth name: Nuri Kamil al-Maliki

Marriage: Married

Children: Four daughters and a son

Education: Usul al-Din College, B.A., Islamic Studies, 1973; Salahaddin University, M.A., Arabic Literature, 1992

Religion: Shiite Muslim

Other Facts

Prono: NOO-ree al-MAA-lick-ee

Changed his name to Jawad al-Maliki while he was in exile.

Negotiated with Sunnis and Kurds to help draft Iraq’s constitution.

Previously an adviser to former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Directed activists in Iraq during his exile in Syria and Iran.

Timeline

1968 – Joins the Dawa Party.

1979-1980 – When he is sentenced to death for opposing Saddam Hussein and the Baathist party, Maliki flees Iraq and finds refuge in Iran and later Syria.

2003 – Returns to Iraq from Syria.

2003-2004 – Member of the de-Baathification Commission, which works to rid former Baathists from Iraq’s military and government.

January 2005 – Is elected to the new parliament as a member of the Dawa Party and serves as the head of the Security and Defense Committee of the National Assembly.

April 22, 2006 – Is chosen by the Shiite-dominated coalition United Iraqi Alliance to replace Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. He has one month to form a government.

May 20, 2006 – Iraq’s new government is sworn in, with 37 cabinet members and Maliki as prime minister.

July 26, 2006 – Addresses a joint meeting of the US Congress on the war in Iraq.

October 27, 2006 – Meets with US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, telling him he considers himself “a friend of the US, but [he’s] not America’s man in Iraq.”

January 2, 2007 – States in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, “I wish I could be done with it even before the end of this term.. I didn’t want to take this position… I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again.”

March 3-5, 2008 – Meets with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Baghdad.

February 2009 – Maliki’s State of Law coalition wins a plurality in 9 of the 14 provinces that held elections.

March 7, 2010 – Parliamentary elections for Iraq’s second full-term legislature. The main rival to the State of Law coalition, which includes Maliki’s Dawa Party, is the Iraqiya coalition headed by former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

March 26, 2010 – In Iraq’s parliamentary elections, Allawi’s Iraqiya coalition edges out Maliki’s coalition 91 seats to 89.

November 25, 2010 – Maliki is named to a second term by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in a televised ceremony.

December 12, 2011 – Meets with US President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss the shift in US-Iraq relations with the end of the Iraq war.

June 10, 2012 – Maliki survives the threat of a no-confidence vote by parliament when President Talabani announces that there is not enough support for the vote. Maliki’s opponents accuse him of monopolizing power.

June 21, 2012 – Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of parliament, announces that Maliki will be asked to appear before parliament in a continued effort to oust him.

January 4, 2014 – Maliki vows to crush the insurgency in Anbar province, where the Sunni insurgency — al Qaeda in Iraq — flourished following the 2003 US-led invasion. “There will be no withdrawal,” Maliki says in a speech carried by Al-Arabiya.

April 30, 2014 – Maliki’s party wins 92 seats in parliamentary elections, short of the 165 seats needed for a majority.

August 11, 2014 – President Fuad Masum appoints Haider al-Abadi as prime minister of Iraq, replacing a defiant Maliki with a member of his own party, despite Maliki’s pronouncement earlier in the day that he intends to stay in office for a third term. Abadi, is the deputy speaker of the Iraqi Parliament and a former aide to Maliki.

August 14, 2014 – In a televised address, Maliki withdraws his candidacy for a third term and endorses Abadi.

September 8, 2014 – Maliki is asked to serve as one of the country’s three vice presidents in the newly formed government.

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