Rustam Haidar (Arabic: رستم حيدر; 1889 – 22 January 1940)[1] was an Iraqi politician of Lebanese descent who served as Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Iraq from 1930 to 1932 and from 1938 to 1940.

Seven years later, Haidar was subjected to a mysterious assassination and was buried next to King Faisal I at the Iraqi Royal Cemetery in Baghdad.

[2] During the height of the Arab Revolt which was led against the Ottomans, Haidar decided to join the forces of Faisal I due to being a founding member of al-Fatat Society.

[3] On 20 April 1929, Haidar was dispatched to Tehran after Reza Shah telegrammed King Faisal I congratulating him on achieving independence.

The mission was warmly welcomed by the Iranian government and on the 25th, Haidar was received in audience by the Shah who had informed him of recognition of Iraq.

He reportedly wrote about Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt in his Sorbonne University thesis and apparently pledged King Faisal I to support him in playing a renaissance role in building the new Iraqi nation.

However, due to his honesty, many of the former students of T. E. Lawrence who later worked in the Iraqi government, became troubled by his Shi'i Muslim sect.

But the group had to return quickly to Iraq due to the Simele massacre which was carried out by al-Gaylani and Bakr Sidqi.

That same year however, King Faisal I and Rustam Haidar had to return to Europe during a treatment trip to Bern, Switzerland.

Haidar, along with Ali of Hejaz and Nuri al-Said, were next to Faisal I's deathbed, and listened to his last words before he died suddenly from a heart attack on the morning of September 8, 1933.

[10] Rustam Haidar was an extremely busy person, he lived alone in a residence in Baghdad and was characterized as "a man with no enemies."

Before Haidar could leave the office, he was shot 3 times by Tawfiq on his left side,[5][12] and he died four days later in the royal hospital from his wounds.

He was interrogated in the presence of the Public Prosecutor and Tawfiq had confessed that he disgruntled with Haidar due to not giving him a job he promised and acted on it all alone.

[4][5] Mir Basri noted that Rustam Haidar: Came to Iraq as a stranger, but he loved the country and its people, and was loyal to his king and his new homeland.

[4]Iraqi historian Abd al-Razzaq al-Hasani mentioned in his book “The History of the Iraqi Ministries, Part 5” that he “understood from Salih Jabr that Rustam Haider had fallen victim to a conspiracy hatched by Nuri al-Said’s opponents to weaken his ministry, or that the Germans were the ones who planned the crime.

I remember that I told Nuri one day that I doubted the Fifth Column’s connection to the assassination incident, and it is possible that the German agents incited the killer.