Mohammad Saber Ismail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva | |
| In office 2013–2016 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 July 1947 |
| Political party |  |
Dr. Mohammad Saber Ismail (born 1 July 1947 [1] ) is an Iraqi Kurdish diplomat and politician from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. He was Iraq's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 2013 to 2016. He was nominated by the PUK in August 2018 as their candidate to succeed Fuad Masum as President of Iraq. [2]
Ismail graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1969 with a degree in Physics. He worked for over 20 years as a university researcher and professor, receiving a doctorate from Stockholm University in nuclear physics in 1988.[ citation needed ] He is married to the sister-in-law of the late President of Iraq and founder of the PUK, Jalal Talabani. [2] His brother, Izzat Ismael, is a member of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament. [3]
Ismail served as a representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government in France from 1993 to 2001 and in the United States from 2001 to 2004. [4]
Ismail was the Iraqi Ambassador to China from 2004 to 2010.[ citation needed ] On his return to Iraq, he became the head of the Asia and Australia Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [1] He was appointed Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva in 2013 and continued until 2016. [2] During this time he was President of the Conference on Disarmament. [5]
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish nationalist political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy and peace for the Kurdish people of Kurdistan and Iraq. The PUK is currently under the leadership of co-presidents Lahur Talabany and Bafel Talabani. The PUK was founded in 1975 by Jalal Talabani, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Fuad Masum, Adel Murad, Ali Askari and Abdul Razaq Feyli.
Mohammad Tofiq Rahim is an Iraqi Kurdish politician. Born in Sulaimaniyah city in 1953, Rahim is currently the secretary of the internal departments of Iraqi Kurdistan's largest opposition grouping Movement for Change.
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan is the part of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. It is one of the four parts of Kurdistan, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, and northwestern Iran. Much of the geographical and cultural region of Iraqi Kurdistan is part of the Kurdistan Region (KRI), an autonomous region recognized by the Constitution of Iraq.
The Peshmerga, are the military forces of the autonomous region of Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Since the Iraqi Army is forbidden by Iraqi law to enter the Kurdistan Region, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, are responsible for the security of Kurdistan Region. These subsidiaries include Asayish, Parastin u Zanyarî and the Zeravani (Gendarmerie). The Peshmerga predates Iraq, starting out as a strictly tribal pseudo-military border guard under the Ottomans and Safavids and later changing to a well-trained, disciplined guerrilla force in the 19th century.
Barham Salih is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who is the eighth and current President of Iraq.
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, also known as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), is an armed leftist ethnic party of Kurds in Iran, exiled in northern Iraq. It is banned in Iran and thus not able to operate openly.
The Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region in northern Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Dohuk, Erbil, Halabja and Sulaymaniyah and bordering Iran, Syria and Turkey. The Kurdistan Region encompasses most of Iraqi Kurdistan but excludes the disputed territories of Northern Iraq, contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad since Southern Kurdish autonomy was realized in 1992 in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The Kurdistan Region Parliament is situated in Erbil, but the constitution of the Kurdistan Region declares the disputed city of Kirkuk to be the capital of the Kurdistan Region. When the Iraqi Army withdrew from most of the disputed areas in mid-2014 because of the ISIL offensive in Northern Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga entered the areas and held control there until they surrendered the city to Iraqi government forces in October 2017.
Masoud Barzani is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 2005 to 2017. Barzani was born in the self-declared Republic of Mahabad, and succeeded his father Mustafa Barzani as leader of the KDP in 1979.
Qubad Talabani is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who has been the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region since 2014. Formerly serving as the representative of Kurdistan to the United States, Qubad is the second son of former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
The Parliament of Kurdistan-Iraq, also called the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament (IKP), is the parliament of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is made up of representatives from the various parties, lists or slates that are elected every four years by the inhabitants of the provinces of Kurdistan Region currently governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. In 2009 an amendment was applied to the Kurdistan Election Law of the year 1992, and since then the body was referred to as Kurdistan Parliament instead of its previous name the Kurdistan National Assembly.
The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War was a military conflict that took place between rival Kurdish factions in Iraqi Kurdistan during the mid-1990s, mostly between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Over the course of the conflict, Kurdish factions from Iranian and Turkish Kurdistan, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish state forces, were drawn into the fighting, with additional involvement from American forces. Between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters and civilians were killed.
The Gorran Movement or just Gorran (Change) is a Kurdish political party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Under the leadership of Omar Said Ali, it was founded in 2009 by Nawshirwan Mustafa. Gorran is the third largest party in the Kurdistan Region Parliament.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party, usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. The party claims it exists to combine "democratic values and social justice to form a system whereby everyone in Kurdistan can live on an equal basis with great emphasis given to rights of individuals and freedom of expression."
The 1983–1986 Kurdish rebellions in Iraq occurred during the Iran–Iraq War as PUK and KDP Kurdish militias of Iraqi Kurdistan rebelled against Saddam Hussein as part of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, in an attempt to form an independent state. With Iraqi government forces occupied by the Iran-Iraq War, Kurdish Peshmerga succeeded in taking control of some enclaves, with Iranian logistic and sometimes military support. The initial rebellion resulted in stalemate by 1985.
Ali Askari (1936–1978) was a Kurdish politician. He was a prominent leader in Iraqi Kurdistan and his political party was the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Muhammad Fuad Masum is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the seventh President of Iraq from 24 July 2014 to 2 October 2018. He was elected as President following the 2014 parliamentary election. Masum is the second non-Arab president of Iraq, succeeding Jalal Talabani, also Kurdish, and was a confidant of Talabani.
The foreign relations of Rojava refers to the external relations of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The AANES, consisting of three regions, was formed in early 2014 in the context of the Syrian Civil War, a conflict that has caused the involvement of many different countries and international organizations in the area.
Parliamentary elections took place in Kurdistan Region on 30 September 2018 to elect Parliament. The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) came first in a parliamentary election in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, winning 45 seats, that positioning it to lead the next regional government. A year after a failed bid for independence, Iraq’s Kurds voted last month in a parliamentary election. Announcement of the results was delayed for three weeks. The KDP’s historic rival and junior coalition partner in government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was in second place with 21 seats. The results suggest that Masoud Barzani’s KDP will take a dominant position in Kurdish politics.
Vala Fareed is a Minister of State for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She was previously elected as the first female speaker of the legislature in February 2019.
Hemin Hawrami, ,, is a Kurdish politician, writer and academic. He has been the Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament since February 2019. He is a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He was elected as a Member of the Kurdistan Parliament in September 2018. He was the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's foreign relations (2011–2017) and later a senior adviser to President Masoud Barzani (2017–2019) for political and international affairs. He has written eight books in Kurdish on Kurdish politics.