Ghazi Yawar appointed as Iraqi president

Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) Chairman for May Ghazi Yawar was appointed on Tuesday as the new Iraqi president after Adnan Pachachi turned down the post, an IGC member said.

Nassir al-Chaderchi said that Yawar had been officially announced as the president and received congratulations from all council members.

The interim council had originally been scheduled to nominate the new president on Monday, but the announcement was delayed due to wrangles over two candidates, namely 81-year-old Pachachi and Yawar.

Pachachi was strongly favored by the United States and UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, while Ghazi gained much backing from the IGC itself.

Yawar, 45, was head of the powerful Shamar tribe which groups both Sunnis and Shiites.

Born in the northern city of Mosul, Yawar lived for 15 years in Saudi Arabia where he worked in business, and returned to Iraq in June 2003.

IGC has also appointed two vice presidents for the new Iraqi government.

Head of Shiite al-Daawa Islamic Party Ibrahim Jaafari and a prominent leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, Rose Noori Shawis were appointed as deputies of the newly-appointed president Ghazi Yawar.

Ayad Alawi, a Shiite former Iraqi intelligence officer, was chosen prime minister Friday and was entrusted with the duty of forming a new cabinet.

The interim government will take over power from the US-led coalition authority and rule Iraq until nationwide elections in January 2005.

Profile of Ghazi Yawar

But Yawar took over the IGC chair in mid-May after his colleague Izzedeen Salim was killed in a suicide attack in Baghdad.

He became a "TV star" in many interviews in Iraqi and foreign channels during the past three weeks. He showed his ability to gain the minds and hearts of Iraqis that helped him to be an equalizer to Pachachi, an experienced politician and major rival for the post

of Iraqi President.

Yawar did not attend the Arab summit which was held in Tunis on May 22, claiming that the situation in Iraq needs him to stay in the country.

He is a leader of tribe of Shamar, a huge and powerful tribe in Iraq and neighboring countries including Saudi Arabia.

Yawar was born in 1958, the year of the famous revolution in Iraq that brought down the monarchic regime and established the modern republic country.

As the eldest among four brothers in his family, he finished his primary and secondary schools in the northern major city of Mosul, where he lives now.

He obtained a Bachelor degree at the University of Petrol and Mineral Engineering in Saudi Arabia. Later he joined George Washington University in the United States to obtain a Master degree in civil engineering.

He left Iraq when Saddam Hussein's army invaded neighboring Kuwait in 1990 and then returned to his homeland after the collapse of Saddam's regime. He was then selected as a member of the IGC.

During his stay in Saudi Arabia he established his prosperous communication company there.

According to sources close to Yawar, he was choleric. If anybody said to him that he was selected to the IGC on sectarian bases, he would argue that he is an Iraqi first.

He is married and has three sons, with the eldest aged 18.