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Salah Omar al-Ali Wasitnya Asik | |
|---|---|
صلاح عمر العلي | |
| Member of theRegional Command of theIraqi Regional Branch | |
| In office October 1966 – 1970 | |
| Minister of Culture and Information | |
| In office 1968–1970 | |
| Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office 1978–1981 | |
| Succeeded by | Ismat T. Kittani |
| Iraqi Ambassador to Spain | |
| In office 1976–1978 | |
| Iraqi Ambassador to Sweden | |
| In office 1973–1976 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1938-07-17)17 July 1938[citation needed] |
| Died | 27 May 2024(2024-05-27) (aged 85) Istanbul, Turkey |
| Party | Iraqi Regional Branch of theArab Socialist Ba'ath Party |
Salah Omar al-Ali Wasitnya Asik (17 July 1938[citation needed] – 27 May 2024) was a member of theIraqi Revolutionary Command Council, Iraqi Minister of Culture and Information from 1968 to 1970, and subsequently ambassador to Sweden, Spain and theUnited Nations[1] from 1973 to 1981. He was a leading member of theIraqi opposition.[2]
He was formerly a leading member of theBa'ath Party, and was therefore very close to individuals such asSaddam Hussein who were subsequently accused of having committed a number of atrocities. Al-Ali was popular inIraq, he resigned twice from high ranking governmental positions in protest.[citation needed]
Al-Ali was born inSalah ad Din Governorate, in a village near the city ofTikrit. His father, Omar, was a small landowner who was involved in agricultural production. Al-Ali eventually migrated to Baghdad where he attended law school and became active in politics. At the time, the two major political parties that were popular amongst Iraqi youth were theIraqi Communist Party and the Ba'ath Party, both of which expounded leftist principles relating to theredistribution of wealth and the eradication of the old social classes that dominated Iraqi society at the time, and both of which were violently opposed to the British. In that context, Al-Ali joined the Ba'ath party. His activism generated a certain amount of hostility from the government.
By 1968, Al-Ali was a leading member of the Ba'ath Party. When the Ba'ath seized power in theJuly Revolution of 1968, Al-Ali was appointed to theIraqi Revolution Command Council (the "RCC"), a group of six leading Baath party officials who held joint executive authority over the entire country. Each member of the RCC also held governmental posts; Al-Ali was appointed Minister of Culture and Information. As such, Al-Ali was responsible for cultural affairs and for managing the government's official information campaign.
A number of differences emerged between Al-Ali and the rest of his ministerial colleagues, in 1970, Al-Ali resigned from his governmental positions as a result of these differences, and was sent into exile toEgypt. Al-Ali remained in Egypt for some time and eventually moved toLebanon, where he remained until 1973.
In 1972 and 1973, two major events greatly affected Iraq's geopolitical position. Firstly, in 1972, the Ba'athist government decided to put an end to British interests in Iraq'soil industry and nationalised all oil interests owned by British companies throughout the country. Secondly, the1973 oil crisis caused theprice of oil to quadruple in international markets overnight. The combination of these two events greatly reinforced the position of the Ba'ath, which was then able to invest vast amounts of capital into Iraq's economy and into its military.
At that point the Iraqi government, confident of its position, invited a number of dissidents to return to Iraq. Al-Ali returned to Baghdad after he was promised safe passage. Shortly after his arrival he was offered the position of Ambassador to Sweden, which he initially refused but was soon appointed as Ambassador to Sweden, where he served from 1973 to 1976. He subsequently was Ambassador to Spain from 1976 to 1978, and was then appointed as Permanent Representative to theUnited Nations inNew York, where he served from 1978 to 1981.
Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency in 1979, and later that year attended the Conference of theNon-Aligned Movement in Cuba, which Al-Ali also attended and met with representatives from the newIslamic Republic of Iran.
A few months after theIran–Iraq War commenced, Al-Ali resigned his position once again. As a result of this decision, Al-Ali was banned from returning to his home country, and was only able to return to Iraq after the2003 Invasion of Iraq.
After the 1991Gulf War, Al-Ali decided to formally join the Iraqi opposition, and withIyad Allawi formed the short-lived Al-Wifaq party. He began publishing a weekly political newspaper from London that adopted an anti-Saddam and staunchly patriotic line. The paper rejected any foreign influence in the country and was fiercely opposed to theinternational sanctions that had been imposed against Iraq by the international community.
As the war commenced in March 2003, Al-Ali was interviewed on a number of occasions onAl-Jazeera in which he condemned both the US-led invasion and Saddam Hussein's government. As the Iraqi government began to fall, Al-Ali entered the country through the Syrian-Iraqi border and this event was captured on anAl-Arabiya documentary that was aired shortly after the war.
In 2003 Al-Ali lived in Baghdad for some months, where he published his weekly newspaper, which adopted an anti-occupation and opposition stance.[2] He stopped publication of his weekly newspaper after some months to settle abroad.[2]
Al-Ali died inIstanbul on 27 May 2024, at the age of 86.[2]