Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi (Arabic: حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April[citation needed] 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018.

[1] He was designated as prime minister by President Fuad Masum on 11 August 2014 to succeed Nouri al-Maliki[2] and was approved by the Iraqi parliament on 8 September 2014.

In 2003, al-Abadi became skeptical of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) privatization plan, proposing to Paul Bremer that they had to wait for a legitimate government to be formed.

In 2003, press reports indicated Iraqi officials were under investigation over a questionable deal involving Orascom, an Egypt-based telecoms company, which in late 2003 was awarded a contract to provide a mobile network to central Iraq.

[25] Al-Abadi was again tapped as a possible prime minister during the tough negotiations between Iraqi political blocs after the elections of 2010 to choose a replacement to incumbent PM Nouri al-Maliki.

"[29] On 14 August 2014, in the face of growing calls from world leaders and members of his own party, the embattled prime minister announced he was stepping down to make way for al-Abadi.

[32] In mid-December 2014, Abadi forged a new revenue-sharing agreement with the Kurds, under which Baghdad agreed to pay the Kurdish Regional Government one half of all income from Kurdish-controlled oil fields.

[32] "Ghost soldiers" were men on army payrolls who never showed up for duty, but paid their officers part of their salaries, thus institutionalizing corruption and hollowing out the armed forces.

[32] Foreign Affairs magazine has written that after four months in power, Abadi's attempts to resolve Iraq's sectarian strife make his premiership "a welcome change from the schismatic style of his predecessor".

As a result of Abadi's reforms, the United States pledged $1.5 billion to train Iraqi forces and announced the sale of F-16 fighter jets, suspended after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[36] Furthermore, al-Abadi pivoted closer towards Russia and Iran in order to combat the threat of ISIL and encouraged cooperation between these nations on military operations in the region.

[36][37] In April, 2016, al-Abadi's difficulties in implementing political reforms led to the storming of the Iraqi parliament by supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

[38] The protesters breaching the Green Zone and disrupting the parliament have been described as evidence of Iraq's increasingly dysfunctional political system and al-Abadi's problems in getting corruption under control.