Iraqi Minister of Human Rights

He was appointed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as the Minister of Human Rights after the 2010 parliamentary election, being approved by parliament on 21 December 2010.

During 2011, he was briefly chairman of the Supreme National De-Baathification Commission|Justice and Accountability Commission for De-Ba'athification, which had the power to bar individuals from government for links to the former ruling Ba'ath Party.^{[citation needed]}

He was minister in August 2014 when thousands of Yazidis were massacred in northern Iraq by the Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh). He described it as "a vicious atrocity" and said it was the "responsibility of the international community to take a firm stand against the Daesh" and to "start the war on Daesh to stop genocides and atrocities against civilians".^[7] He asked the United Nations Human Rights Council to launch an investigation into crimes against civilians committed by ISIS. He described their crimes as amounting to genocide and crimes against humanity.^[8] "We are facing a terrorist monster", he explained. "Their movement must be curbed. Their assets should be frozen and confiscated. Their military capacities must be destroyed."^[9]

He was succeeded by Mohammed Mahdi Ameen al-Bayati in October 2014, when the government of Haider al-Abadi took office.^[10]

Prime Minister

In a bid to end the 2022 Iraqi political crisis, the coordination framework officially nominated al-Sudani for the post of prime minister in May 2022.^[11] He succeeded in forming a government, which was approved by the Council of Representatives on 27 October.^[12]

In January 2023, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, al-Sudani defended the presence of U.S. troops in his country and set no timetable for their withdrawal, referring to the U.S. and NATO troop contingents that train and assist Iraqi units in countering Islamic State, but largely stay out of combat, though he mentioned that the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq is no longer needed.^[13]

The Economist has said that al-Sudani is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the state-sponsored militia umbrella organization that unites different armed factions, and his tenure has seen their influence further increase in Iraq.^[14] His government has increased the number of troops for the PMF by 116,000, increasing the total number to around 230,000, and has set its budget to US$2.7 billion. It has also launched a building company affiliated with the PMF, named after killed PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis; the company gives preferential access to government contractors and the government has awarded the company with strategic land.^[14]

On 20 July 2023, al-Sudani expelled the Swedish ambassador to Iraq and revoked work permits for Swedish companies after Sweden approved a planned Quran burning.^[15]

On 10 October 2023, al-Sudani arrived in Moscow and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.^[16] On 21 October 2023, he called for a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war.^[17] During a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, he described the Hamas attack on Israel as "a result of years of criminal policies of the Zionist regime against the people of Gaza."^[18]

On 17 February 2024, he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Munich while he was attending the Munich Security Conference where he met with various world leaders.^[19]

In April 2024, al-Sudani condemned the Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus.^[20]