Naji Talib ar, ناجي طالب (1 July 1917 – 23 March 2012) was the prime minister of Iraq from 1966 to 1967, replacing

Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz (Arabic: عبد الرحمن البزاز; 20 February 1913 – 28 June 1973) was an Iraqi politician, reformist and writer. He was a pan-Arab nationalist and served as the Dean of Baghdad Law College and later as Prime ...

.Batatu, H: ''The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq - A study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba'thists and Free Officers'', Princeton University Press, 1978.

Early life

Talib was born in 1917 in Nasiriyah,

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. His family were from the landowning class in Iraq; his father was a landowner in and mayor of Nasiriyah and a member of parliament.

Military career

Talib was educated at the British Military Academy from 1936 to 1939. During 1954 and 1955 he was stationed in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as a military attaché, In 1958 Naji Talib's rank and post was that of Staff brigadier, commander, 15th Infantry Brigade, 1st Division,

Basrah Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is ha ...

, and upon retirement from the army he had reached the rank of

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Political career

In 1956 Staff Colonel Naji Talib was the

commandant Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...

of the Senior Officers School in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. During this year he proposed the immediate union of Iraq with the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

upon an antagonistic intervention by any of the parties to the Baghdad Pact, The Supreme committee committed itself unanimously to the proposal. In 1957 Naji Talib became the second deputy chairman of the Free Officers Movement in Iraq. Naji Talib's role in government included taking up the positions of Minister of

Social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

Affairs 14 July 1958 – 7 February 1959, Minister of Industries 1963, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1964–1965, and finally

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

9 August 1966 – 9 May 1967. Naji Talib later became a middle-of-the-roader after holding ministerial portfolios under Qasim and in the days of the Ba'th. While politically he wavered between an independent nationalist attitude and

Nasserism Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic an ...

, he had succeeded in remaining in all the good graces of all the contending military factions.

Later activities

On November 7, 2004 a proposal was sent to then

Secretary General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-ge ...

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...

, to form an Iraqi committee initiative on Falluja. The proposal stated that Naji Talib was willing to become a member of an initiative which planned to start a series of visits to the town of Falluja, to conduct meetings with its inhabitants, combatants, and official police there to find a just solution to safeguard the town and its people from harm as well save the lives of occupation troops. On October 22, 2005 Talib was acting as a negotiator for the Sunnis in Iraq.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Talib, Naji Nasserists Prime Ministers of Iraq 1917 births 2012 deaths Iraqi Shia Muslims Government ministers of Iraq Iraqi Arab nationalists Iraqi expatriates in the United Kingdom