Nouri al-Maliki

Nouri al-Makiki (1950-) (also transliterated al-Malaki) is a Shi'ite who is Prime Minister of Iraq. He is sometimes called Jawad, which was his pseudonym while being hunted by the security forces of Saddam Hussein. He is head of the Islamic Dawa Party. His government, along with Jalal Talabani as President, succeeded the Iraqi Transitional Government and now controls Iraq as U.S. forces leave.

Saddam forced the Dawa party leadership in 1980, when they took refuge in Syria. Ibrahim Jaafari was then the party leader, and became interim prime minister in the transitional government after Saddam was ousted. Jaafari, however, was unacceptable to Kurdish and Sunni blocs, and Maliki was an acceptable alternative when a Shi'te coalition won a majority in 2005.