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Sa'dun Hammadi

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Sa'dun Hammadi
سعدون حمادي
Hammadi in the early 1990s
Prime Minister of Iraq
In office
23 March 1991 – 13 September 1991
PresidentSaddam Hussein
Preceded bySaddam Hussein
Succeeded byMohammed 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
Born22 June 1930
Karbala, Iraq
Died14 March 2007 (aged 76)
Germany
Political partyIraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Damascus

Sa'dun Hammadi (22 June 1930 – 14 March 2007; Arabic: سعدون حمادي) was an Iraqi politician and economist who held various ministerial positions in the Iraqi state, including the Minister of Agrarian Reform, head of the Iraq National Oil Company, and the Minister of Oil, surviving Saddam Hussein's takeover of power. He was briefly the prime minister of Iraq under President Saddam Hussein from March until September 1991. 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. In 1974, Hammadi became Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until 1983. Later, he became the Deputy Prime Minister. Hammadi 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 the Speaker of the National Assembly in 1996 and continued to be in position until the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His last official position was President of the Iraqi National Assembly until the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, that overthrew the Ba'ath Party

Early life

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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]

United Arab Republic

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In 1958, Gamal Abdel Nasser declared the formation of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria. However, Nasser insisted on dissolving Syria’s political parties, including the Ba'ath Party, as a prerequisite for unity.

This demand frustrated Ba'athists and caused turmoil within Ba'athist ranks outside Syria, particularly in Iraq. Consequently, the Iraqi Ba'ath leadership sent Hammadi to Damascus on a mission to convince Syrian Ba'athists of the dangers of dissolving the party.

In his memoirs, Hammadi wrote:

"I traveled to Damascus via Beirut and attended a leadership meeting with Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and Akram al-Hourani. I explained my mission, but the discussion remained inconclusive. No definitive answer was given as to why the party had been dissolved in Syria. It was a typical meeting—lots of debate but no clear decision."

He added:

"Within the Iraqi branch of the party, there was no support for dissolving the party in Syria. However, members remained silent because the decision came from the highest leadership and was seen as the price of achieving unity."

1958 coup

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Just months after the union between Egypt and Syria, on July 14, 1958, Baghdad’s radio station broadcast news of a revolution led by a group of Iraqi officers. Two days later, Hammadi took over as editor of Al-Shaab newspaper, which had previously been a royalist publication but was rebranded as Al-Jumhuriya following the revolution.

However, divisions soon emerged among the officers. The power struggle took shape between two factions: a nationalist faction led by Abdul Salam Arif and another, supported by the Communist Party, led by Abdul Karim Qasim. The core of the conflict revolved around the question of unification with the United Arab Republic. Arif and the nationalists, including the Ba'athists, advocated for unity, while Qasim and the communists favored an independent Iraq and proposed a federal union instead.

Taher Kanaan explained: "The communists were not openly against unity. They claimed to support a federal rather than a full union. However, this was merely a deceptive tactic."

Imprisonment and Exile

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Following the revolution, Hammadi left Iraq for Libya to work in the research department of the National Bank of Libya. While in Libya, he secretly worked to establish a Ba'athist organization, but a political statement calling for democracy, the expulsion of foreign forces, and Arab unity led to his arrest and imprisonment for a year. Upon his release, he returned to Iraq but was arrested upon arrival due to escalating tensions between Arif and Qasim. The Iraqi prisons at that time were filled with Ba'athists, communists, and Kurdish activists.

1963 coup

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On February 8, 1963, another coup took place—this time led by Ba'athists and their allies. Hammadi recalled: "That evening, prison authorities informed me of my release. A military vehicle transported me to the radio station, which served as the headquarters of the new leadership. By the next morning, I was appointed Minister of Agriculture—a complete surprise to me." Hammadi described Qasim’s final moments: "They brought Qasim and Fadhil al-Mahdawi to the leadership headquarters. Qasim appeared composed. Abdul Salam Arif gathered the National Council members and declared, 'Execution for all of them!' Moments later, gunfire erupted."

He added: "I entered the room where the execution had taken place. It was filled with smoke. Qasim, Mahdawi, and others sat dead in their chairs. The scene was overwhelming."

Ba'ath Party

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Only 13 days after the success of the July 1968 coup, power was effectively in the hands of the Baath. Saadoun Hammadi returned to Baghdad without a job or position. He wrote a letter to Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, who became President of Iraq, and Hammadi returned to work again in the state through the Ministry of Oil.

Hammadi recounts that at that time, he met Saddam Hussein, who was then serving as Vice President of the Revolutionary Command Council, near the Sarafiya Bridge, and Saddam offered him the position of Chairman of the National Oil Company.

In 1979, Saddam Hussein consolidated power, eliminating opposition within the Ba'ath Party. Hammadi played a key role in the nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry, describing the 1972 oil nationalization as a historic decision led by Saddam. Hammadi said “That was on November 15, 1968. In 1970, I became Minister of Oil. My tenure was during the period in which the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) emerged, during which the conflict with international oil companies intensified, nationalization and the oil crisis occurred, and the revenues of the producing countries rose.”

He added: "The decision to nationalize the oil industry was historic. The credit for it goes to Comrade Saddam Hussein."

Career

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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 with Philipp Jenninger at Bonn, 1987

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

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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]

References

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  1. ^ "Saadoun Hammadi's Diaries, Volume 1: Memoirs and Reflections". www.dohainstitute.org.
  2. ^ "مذكرات سعدون حمّادي.. من نشأة البعث وحكم صدام إلى سجن أبو غريب". التلفزيون العربي (in Arabic). 2023-02-17. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  3. ^ "المرحوم د. سعدون حمادي مفخرة رائعة من مفاخر العراق وذكرياتي معه في معتقل كروبر بالمطار". www-thiqar-net.translate.goog. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
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Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of Iraq
1991
Succeeded by