Muhammad Shia al-Sudani is a prominent Iraqi politician. He began his political activity with the Islamic Dawa Party as a member of the Maysan Provincial Council, and then founded the Euphrates political movement in 2019. He held several positions until he was nominated to head the Iraqi Council of Ministers in July 2022.

Birth and upbringing

Muhammad Shiaa Sabbar Hatem al-Sudani was born in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 1970, to a middle-aged family from Maysan Governorate, southeast of Iraq.

His father, Shia, was an employee in the agricultural bank, and his grandfather was Sheikh Sabbar Hatem Al-Sihoud, one of the well-known sheikhs in the Maysan governorate.

At the age of ten, his family faced a problem with the former Iraqi regime because of his father's affiliation with the Islamic Dawa Party (a Shiite party), which was banned at the time.

Shiaa was arrested by the Iraqi government and then executed along with 5 members of his family in 1980 upon his return from treatment in France.


Study and training

He obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Baghdad and graduated as an agricultural engineer from the College of Agriculture in 1992. He then worked as a major in the private sector after graduating for five years.

political experience

The political life of Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani began with the Islamic Dawa Party after he was elected as a member of the Maysan Governorate Council between 2005 and 2009.

After the victory of the "State of Law" coalition led by the head of the Dawa Party, Nuri al-Maliki in 2009 in the local elections of Maysan Governorate, Al-Sudani was elected Governor of Maysan on April 21, 2009.

Al-Sudani was appointed Minister of Human Rights after the formation of the second government of Nouri al-Maliki on December 22, 2010.

In mid-2011, he was assigned the duties of head of the National Commission for Accountability and Justice, until October 2012.

In 2013, he was assigned the duties of Minister of Agriculture in the second Maliki government, then Minister of Immigration and Displacement in 2014, and then took over the administration of the Institution of Political Prisoners.

His duties as director of the Institution for Political Prisoners ended in January 2015.

He participated in the legislative elections in 2014 for the first time as a representative of the province of Baghdad within the "Coalition of State of Law" for the Dawa Party, and won a parliamentary seat.

He assumed the position of Minister of Labor and Social Affairs on September 8 during the era of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in 2014, and continued in his position for 4 years until the end of the mandate of the al-Abadi government.

Al-Abadi appointed him as Minister of Finance between 2014 and 2015 for a limited period, then took the position of head of the Child Welfare Authority in the country, and then as Minister of Trade for the period from October 2015 to April 28, 2016.

He was assigned the duties of the Minister of Industry on August 14, 2016 for several months.

He was unanimously elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Labor Organization in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, between 2017 and 2018.

In 2018, he was elected for the second time as a member of the Iraqi Parliament, representing the State of Law Coalition, during which he participated in several parliamentary committees, and then was re-elected on October 10, 2021 as a member of the Iraqi Parliament for the third time in a row.

In July 2022, the Coordination Framework decided to nominate him for the prime ministership in Iraq.


intellectual orientation

Al-Sudani belongs to the Islamic Dawa Party, and participated with the opposition parties in the “popular uprising” in 1991, which are demonstrations and protests that came out to demand the overthrow of the regime of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, after the second Gulf War, and the Iraqi authorities were able at that time to regain control over the cities that witnessed these protests. .

After 2003, Al-Sudani continued to work within the Dawa Party's organizations, then became close to the party's leader, Nuri al-Maliki, who later formed the State of Law coalition, during which he assumed many positions in ministries and responsibilities.

After the popular demonstrations that erupted in Iraq on October 1, 2019, Al-Sudani resigned from the Islamic Dawa Party, to form the "Political Euphrates" movement, and took the position of Secretary-General of the new party.

On July 25, 2022, the leaders of the Coordination Framework, which is the political bloc that includes all Iraqi Shiite parties (except for the Sadrist movement), unanimously agreed to nominate him for the position of prime minister.

Al-Sudani is one of the leaders of the second row among Iraqi politicians, and the coordination framework sees him as one of the most experienced figures in executive work, given that he assumed many ministries and responsibilities between 2003 and 2022.


Functions and Responsibilities

During the six years preceding the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he worked in the Agriculture Directorate of Maysan Governorate, and assumed several responsibilities, including the head of the Kumait District Agriculture Division, the Ali Al Sharqi District, and the Plant Production Department.

He was the engineer supervising the Iraqi National Research Program with the United Nations FAO before the invasion.

After 2003, he worked as a coordinator between the authority supervising the administration of Maysan Governorate and the Coalition Authority of the US Forces in 2003.

After that, he assumed the responsibility of managing the Qaemqamiya (the capital of the administrative departments) in the city of Al-Amarah, the capital of Maysan Governorate, in 2004.

He held several ministerial positions (Minister of Human Rights, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Minister of Finance, Minister of Industry) and responsibilities between 2003 and 2022.

Achievements

Iraq entered the Guinness Book of Records in 2014 as "the largest symbol of peace in the world."