Khaled Al-Obaidi  | |
|---|---|
|   al-Obaidi meets US Secretary of Defence, April 2015  | |
| Defense Minister of Iraq | |
| In office 18 October 2014 –19 August 2016  | |
| President | Fuad Masum | 
| Prime Minister | Haider al-Abadi | 
| Preceded by | Saadoun al-Dulaimi | 
| Succeeded by | Othman Ghanm (Interim) | 
| Personal details | |
| Born | |
| Political party | Progress Party | 
| Alma mater | University of Baghdad,Keele University | 
| Profession | Politician,aerospace engineer | 
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | |
| Rank | Major general | 
Khaled Yassin al-Obaidi (born 1959) [1] is an Iraqi politician who served as the defense minister of Iraq from 2014 to 2016.
Khalid Yassin al-Obaidi is a Sunni Muslim who was born in Mosul. [2] He belongs to the al-Obaidi Sunni tribal confederation. [3] al-Obaidi is a member of the Iraqi parliament's Itihad al-Quwa al-Wataniyah bloc. [4] He holds two master's degree in engineering and military science as well as a doctorate in political science. [5] He served in the Iraqi Air Force,specialising in engineering aircraft engines until 2003 when he was appointed as a university professor by the Ministry of Higher Education. He was appointed as the Technical Education Authority by the Ministry of Education in 2007 [5] [6] and has also served as a security advisor for the President of the Parliament. He was nominated for the post of Defense Minister and accepted by the Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in 2010 but was rejected by Ayad Allawi,the Iraqi National List founder. [7] He was also a major general in the Iraqi Army. [3]
On 18 October 2014,he was appointed as the Defence Minister of Iraq. [2] In August 2016,al-Obeidi was voted out of power through a no-confidence vote in the parliament,with a majority of lawmakers voting against him over allegations of corruption. He is the first incumbent defence minister to receive a no-confidence vote in Iraq after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. [6] [8] Othman al-Ghanmi was appointed to succeed him as the interim Defence Minister by the Iraqi government on 29 August 2016. [9]
In December 2017 an MP reported that an arrest warrant had been issued for al-Obaidi. Warrants were issued for 48 defence officials in total,including the air force commander. [10]
al-Obaidi later shifted to the Azem Alliance. [11] Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi appointed him as the head of the operations section of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service on 14 September 2020. [12]