Who's who in Iraq: Hajim al-Hassani

The grey-bearded 50-year-old took the position reserved for a Sunni Arab by a large majority of 215 votes out of 241 deputies present.

But he was only one of two Sunni Arab MPs who were acceptable for the high-profile, but largely powerless position.

The rest were either members of the Shia list - or had connections to the former Saddam Hussein regime which was unacceptable to Shia deputies who hold a majority in the parliament.

The only other possible candidate - outgoing President Ghazi Yawer - had ruled himself out.

Exile

Born in Kirkuk and a graduate of Mosul university, Mr Hassani moved to the United States in 1979 and spent most of his working life there.

He has degrees in agriculture and economics from the universities of Nebraska and Connecticut.

He then spent 12 years working in Los Angeles, where he became head of an investment and trading company.

During that time he became an activist in the anti-Saddam opposition and rose through the ranks of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

In 2003, He returned to his homeland after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam and took up a deputy post in the Iraqi Governing Council.

During that time the IIP emerged as a strong force in the restive Sunni province of al-Anbar and Mr Hassani helped negotiate an unsuccessful truce with the insurgents of Falluja which held until April 2004.

Insurgency

Mr Hassani was appointed as industry minister in the interim government of Iyad Allawi that was set up after the US handed sovereignty back to Iraqi hands in June 2004.

But his ministry's privatisation programme has failed to revive Iraq's economy which remains crippled by the anti US-insurgency.

And he provoked outright anger from many of his Sunni co-religionists when he backed the US-led assault on Falluja late in 2004.

The IIP resigned from the government and Mr Hassani chose to be banished from his party while he stayed on in his ministerial position.

He later helped with the distribution of humanitarian aid and reconstruction in the devastated city after the assault on Falluja was over.

Sectarian differences

Mr Hassani is considered an outsider by most Sunni Arabs, but as an Islamist - if a moderate one - his is also viewed with suspicion by the secular Shia tradition represented by Mr Allawi and his supporters.

Analysts say he may not be unifying figure that is needed to heal rifts after the rancorous process that led to his election - a process that was intended to be a mere formality.

Nor - after the Falluja schism - is he best placed to persuade disillusioned Sunni Arabs to resist the insurgency and rally behind the new government - Sunnis make up about 20% of the Iraqi population, but because of a wide-scale boycott and fears of violence during polling, they hold only about 5% of parliamentary seats.

However, in his new role Mr Hassani has signalled as desire to heal sectarian and ethnic differences and put the people's needs first.

"The Kurd has put his hand in the Arab's hand and the Shia has taken the Sunni's hand so they could all walk side-by-side along with their Christian and Turkmen brothers," he said in his acceptance speech.

And he warned MPs: "You should be part of the suffering of your people... who suffer from power cuts and water shortages... part of their suffering in facing terrorism".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4409619.stm

Hajem al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, earned a PhD from the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of Connecticut in the United States in 1990.

He then spent several years in the U.S. conducting studies on the agricultural economic analysis.

Al-Hassani returned to Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He was named to the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, and then became minister of industry and minerals.

He once said in an interview that he was working with the Iraqi opposition before the war and that he “was commuting between Los Angeles and London. We've been working hard to make this change happen.”

He also said that the biggest mistake done by the U.S. was dissovling the Iraqi army and security forces after the invasion, yet he argued that "when you have such a big job like this, you make mistakes".

However, al-Hassani was an outspoken critic of the U.S. deadly assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah which took place November 2004.

Al-Hassani was then ppointed as minister in July 2004. He escaped an assassination attempt in Baghdad after rebels attacked the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party by mortar fire.

"I probably was the target. I left 10 minutes before it happened," he said at the time.

Parliament speaker

On April 2005, Iraqi interim parliament elected al-Hassani as its speaker, setting the ground for forming a government.

In his opening speech to the assembly, al-Hassani tried to assure the Iraqis that his main focus was moving ahead on the drafting of the constitution, one of the parliament’s key tasks.

He also tried to reassure the largely religious Shiites majority that although he was a secular profile, he is a deep believer in Islam.

The newly elected speaker previously turned down the post, saying that he would only accept it as a last resort.

"The Iraqi people have proven that they can overcome the political crisis that has plagued the country for the last two months," he said after his appointment.

Al-Hassani won the largest share of votes; 215 to 157 for his closest Shiite rival, Hussain al-Shahristani, a former nuclear scientist.

Choosing a Sunni as the Iraqi Parliament speaker appears to be aimed at reaching out to Iraq's second-largest community, largely alienated since the U.S. invasion.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/review/article_full_story.asp?service_ID=7584