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9.5  |  June 2006 to 27 June 2007
Construction, the Environment, Women’s Affairs and Human Rights.17 Six ministers were
considered to be Sadrists.
Table 1: Key Cabinet Ministers in the first Maliki government18
Post
Prime Minister
Deputy PM
Deputy PM
Defence Minister
Interior Minister
National Security Minister
Oil Minister
Foreign Minister
Justice Minister
Name
Mr Nuri al‑Maliki
Dr Barham Salih
Mr Salam Zaubai
Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Obeidi
Mr Jawad Bulani
Mr Shirwan Wail
Mr Hussain al‑Shahristani
Mr Hoshyar Zebari
Mr Hashim al‑Shebli
Party
Dawa (Shia)
PUK (Kurdish)
IAF (Sunni)
(Sunni)
(Shia)
(Shia)
(Shia)
KDP (Kurdish)
(Sunni)
17.  Mr Dominic Asquith, who succeeded Mr Patey as British Ambassador to Iraq in
August 2006, told the Inquiry that the delay in agreeing the composition of the Cabinet
had a significant impact on Prime Minister Maliki’s performance as a leader.19 In
Mr Asquith’s view, Mr Maliki had never felt confident that he commanded “the loyalty
even of those within his own Shia Alliance” and “was always concerned about the risk
that other political leaders were about to undermine him”.
18.  In mid‑June, Prime Minister Maliki formally launched the Baghdad Security Plan.20
Its key elements included:
achieving broad political engagement, with Prime Minister Maliki and the
Minister of the Interior closely involved;
communication with the local population, including directly by the Iraqi Security
Forces (ISF), to build trust;
initial operations and checkpoints to demonstrate an integrated Multi‑National
Force (MNF), Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police Service approach to security, in which
Iraqis were seen to be taking the lead;
increased patrols throughout Baghdad to develop early warning and intelligence,
and 24‑hour continuous patrolling to deter violence;
targeted and intelligence‑led offensive operations to neutralise insurgents; and
17  Associated Press, 20 May 2006, List of Iraqi Cabinet Ministers.
18  BBC News, 22 May 2006, Who’s who in Iraq’s new cabinet.
19  Public hearing, 4 December 2009, page 38.
20  BBC News, 14 June 2006, Iraq implements new security plan.
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