Iyad Allawi
Ayad Allawi (Arabic: إياد علاوي . Iyād ʿAllāwī; born 1944) is an Iraqi politician who was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq from 2004 to 2005. He has been Vice President of Iraq since 2014. A prominent Iraqi political activist who lived in exile for almost 30 years, Allawi, a Shia Muslim, became a member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, which was established by U.S.-led coalition authorities following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He became Iraq's first head of government since Saddam Hussein when the council dissolved on June 1, 2004 and named him Prime Minister of the Iraqi Interim Government. His term as Prime Minister ended on April 7, 2005, after the selection of Islamic Dawa Party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari by the newly elected transitional Iraqi National Assembly. A former Ba'athist, Allawi helped found the Iraqi National Accord, which today is an active political party. In the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the INA provided intelligence about alleged weapons of mass destruction to MI6. Allawi has lived about half of his life in the UK. His wife and children still live in Britain for their security. He survived assassination attempts in 1978, in 2004, and on April 20, 2005. Allawi's first name is sometimes rendered as Iyad or Eyad.