Important figures mentioned in articles:

1. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani
The most senior Shiite cleric in Iraq. During the Saddam era, he spent long periods of time under house arrest in spite of him avoiding overt political activity.

The Grand Ayatollah represents the conservative and mainstream of Iraqi Shiites rejecting the model of Iranian style theocracy and in favor of separation between religion and politics, but insisting that Islam is the official religion in the country. The Sistani wields enormous power over the Iraqi Shiite, because of his high religious status as the spiritual reference [THE MARJAA] and because of his wisdom his moderation and modesty and for his very sincere and great efforts in diffusing some of the most serious troubles during the last few months.

2. Dr. Ibrahim al-Jaafari
A Shiite born in Kkarbala in 1947, the current Vice President and the next Prime Minister of Iraq, a post to which he was nominated by the Shiite Alliance, which won almost half the seats in the newly elected national assembly.

Al-Jaafari studied medicine in Mosul University and joined al Dawa, which was one of the most active anti-Saddam parties which was a victim of a number of his murderous atrocities, which led the doctor to leave to Iran in 1980 and then to Britain in 1989 were he became the party’s spokesman. After the 2003 invasion, he returned to Iraq as a member of the American created governing council and was its first President for one month. He is serving now as one of the two Vice Presidents to the current president Mr. al-Yawer. He is a very good speaker and a moderate and had very high ratings in practically all the opinion polls since the invasion.

3. Dr. Ayad Alawi
The current Prime Minister of Iraq. A Shiite, he was born in 1945 and graduated from Baghdad Medical College. An old Baathist, but he escaped the country to Britain because of his opposition to Saddam who tried to assassinate him on two occasions. In exile he set up the Iraqi National Accord, which is now an official party inside the country, but in exile his group carried a number of bombings inside the country during Saddam’s rule. After the invasion, he became a member of the governing council, but when the council was dissolved in June, 2004, he became the first head of government since Saddam.

4. Mr. Jalal Talabani
The founder and leader of one of the two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan which is based in Sulaymaniyah.

Mr. Talabani was born in 1933 in a small village in southern Kurdistan, he was politically very active since age 14, he entered law school in 1953 and graduated in 1959, he remained very active in Kurdish politics all his life, he is a very shrewd and experienced politician. He was a leading member of the Iraqi opposition which remained in the country during the defunct Baathist regime, he was appointed as a member of the Iraq Governing Council and was its President during the month of November in 2003. He is almost certainly will be the next President of Iraq.

5. Dr. Adnan Pachachi
Dr. Pachachi was born in Baghdad, May 14, 1923. Had his primary education in Baghdad, he received a B.A political Science–American University of Beirut in 1943, he received a Ph.D. political science and history from George Washington University, Washington DC. 1949.

Dr. Pachachi had a more than a three decade career in the Iraqi diplomatic service in various posts including that of minister of foreign affairs from 1966-1967 and ended in 1969 when he resigned his latest post as ambassador and permanent representative of Iraq to the United Nations.

He moved to the UAE in 1970 and served there in very high profile posts in that government and returned to Iraq after the fall down of Saddam and served as a member of the governing council and participated in the formulation of the interim administrative law of Iraq by the rules of which the country is governed during the transitional period [the transitional constitution].