Abdul-Mahdi, Adel, 1942–, Iraqi political leader. Born into a prominent Shiite family, he joined the Ba'ath party in the early 1960s, then left the party and went into self-exile in France in 1969. After studying economics and political science in Paris, he worked for think tanks and as a magazine editor, becoming an avowed Maoist. In the 1970s and 80s, he traveled widely and became enamored of the Iranian revolution, advocating a mild form of clerical rule for Iraq. Returning to Iraq in 2003 following the fall of Saddam Hussein, he served as finance minister (2004–5), vice president (2005–11), and oil minister (2014–16). In 2018 Abdul-Mahdi, now a political independent, was selected as a compromise prime minister. Antigovernment protests in late 2019 led him to resign in December, but he remained in office as a caretaker prime minister until a successor was chosen.
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