Sa'dun Hammadi

Sa'dun Hammadi
Sa'dun Hammadi
سعدون حمادي
	Hammadi in the early 1990s
Prime Minister of Iraq
	In office; 23 March 1991 – 13 September 1991
President	Saddam Hussein
Preceded by	Saddam Hussein
Succeeded by	Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi
Member of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
	In office; 1994 – May 2001
	In office; June 1982 – September 1991
	In office; 2 February 1962 – 25 September 1963
Personal details
Born	22 June 1930; Karbala, Iraq
Died	14 March 2007 (aged 76); Germany
Political party	Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Damascus

Sa'dun Hammadi (22 June 1930 – 14 March 2007; Arabic: سعدون حمادي) was an Iraqi politician and economist. He was briefly the prime minister of Iraq under President Saddam Hussein from March until September 1991 and was appointed as the Speaker of the National Assembly of Iraq. In addition, he was a member of the Regional Command of Iraqi Regional Branch.

Hammadi began his political career in the late 1940s, when he joined the Ba'ath Party. He rose to prominence after the seizure of power in Iraq by the Ba'ath Party and held numerous ministerial positions in the government. He succeeded Saddam in 1991, who had previously been prime minister in addition to being president, but was forced out due to his reformist views and was made as the Speaker of the National Assembly in 1996 and continued to be in position until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Early life

Hammadi was born in Karbala on 22 June 1930, as a Shi'ite Muslim. He obtained a Master's Degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut. In addition, he earned a PhD. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1956. Hammadi joined the Ba'ath Party in 1949.^[1] He was believed to be first Iraqi member of the Ba'ath Party, who introduced Ba'athism in Iraq.

Hammadi said in his memoirs: "My years of study in Lebanon were the beginning of my exposure to what was outside my birthplace. I saw a new Arab country, and I contacted Arabs outside Iraq. In it, my political thinking crystallized, and the progressive nationalist trend settled within me. That was an opportunity to see some of the beauty of nature,” He added. “I lived in a university environment that was different from what we were used to, a mixed environment where women were present. I witnessed this with emotion, and the feelings of youth blossomed in me".^[2]

Career

He went as part of a government mission to Lebanon in 1952. In 1958, Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the formation of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria. Nasser made the dissolution of the Syrian parties a condition for achieving the union. The condition disappointed Ba'athists. Hammadi was send to Damascus to convince the Syrian Baath Party of the danger of dissolving the party. He attended a leadership meeting that included Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Bitar, and Akram al-Hawrani. Hammadi was editor-in-chief of the pro-Baathist newspaper Al-Jumhuriya after the 1958 revolution.

Hammadi previously served a stint as Iraqi Oil Minister, an important portfolio during a time of burgeoning economic progress, and served as Foreign Minister from 1974 until 1983, surviving Saddam's takeover in 1979. He also served as the Speaker of the National Assembly of Iraq from 1983 until 1990 and from 1996 until the Fall of Baghdad in 2003.

During the 1991 Iraq rebellion Hammadi, a Shi'ite in the very top circle of the party, was appointed prime minister, likely due to placate Shi'ite Iraqi concerns over political dominance by a Sunni Arab clique from Tikrit. He was subsequently forced out the same year, but was returned to his position as Speaker in 1996.

Post-2003 and death

Hammadi was later imprisoned at a prison camp in Iraq after the invasion. In February 2004, after nine months in the custody of the Americans, he was released and subsequently resettled in Qatar while seeking medical treatment abroad

He died in a German hospital from liver cancer on 14 March 2007. At his funeral (janazah) in Doha, his body was wrapped in the Ba'athist Iraqi flag.^[3]