Arshad al-Umari

After World War I when the Arab countries including Iraq were separated from the Ottoman Empire, al-Umari returned from Istanbul to Mosul, in 1919, with his wife, where he was appointed chief engineer of the Municipality of Mosul and continued until 1924. During this period his four children, Suad, Frozan (Suzy), Issam and Imad were born in Mosul.

In 1924, he was elected a member of the first Parliament of Iraq after the formation of the national government of Iraq under King Faisal I. From 1925 through 1931 he was Director General of Post and Telegraph, and from 1931 to 1933 Lord Mayor of Baghdad.

On the formation of the Red Crescent he was elected President of the society and continued holding that position until 1958, more than 25 years.

In 1933, he was Director General of Irrigation, and from 1934 to 1935 he was Minister of Public Works. During his Ministership the opening of the famous oil pipeline from the oilfields at Kirkuk to the Mediterranean over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) was celebrated. In 1935, he was Director General of Municipalities. From 1936 till 1944, he was Lord Mayor of Baghdad for a second time. The city planning and the general layout of the present modern Baghdad were one of his great achievements of the period. From 4 June 1944 to 25 August 1945, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister of Defense and Supply. During his Ministership of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic relations were established with the USSR and letters were exchanged between him and Vyacheslav Molotov on 11 September 1944. Also during his Ministership, the Arab League was formed and he headed the Iraqi delegations to Cairo, Egypt, and signed the Charter of the Arab League on 22 March 1945.

al-Umari headed the Iraqi delegation to sign the United Nations charter at San Francisco, California. On the arrival of the delegation to New York, President Franklin Roosevelt died on 12 April 1945. al-Umari headed the Iraqi delegation at the funeral on 14 April 1945.

On 26 April, the San Francisco Conference consisting of 50 nations met to discuss the draft of the United Nations Organization. al-Umari, the head of the Iraqi delegation, in protest against the apparent intention of the great powers to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State, refused to sign the charter and left the conference returning to Iraq on June 13, 1945. On June 26 the Charter was signed. Dr. Fadhil Al-Jamali signed on behalf of Iraq.

After his return to Iraq, al-Umari resigned from the cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 25 August 1945. From 4 June to 14 December 1946 he was Prime Minister of Iraq for the first time.

From 29 January to 23 June 1948 he was Minister of Defense. In 1952 he was selected to be the Executive Vice-President of the Development Board. The Development Board was formed to undertake the study and execution of major construction schemes such as the Darbandikhan Dam on the Diyala River, the Dukan Dam on the Little Zab, the Bekhme Dam on the Great Zab, the Samarra Dam on the Tigris and the Lake Tharthar flood protection scheme connected with it, the Mosul Dam on the Tigris, the network of modern highways connecting major cities in Iraq, a great number of hospitals, schools and other public institutions.

In April 1954, he became Prime Minister of Iraq for the second time. In 1958, at the age of 70, he retired to his favorite city of Istanbul. He returned to Iraq in 1968 and spent the rest of his life at the Baghdad residence of his elder son, Dr. Issam ul-Umari. He died in Baghdad on 4 November 1978 at the age of 90 and was buried at the family cemetery in Mosul.

• Harris M. Lentz III, Heads of States and Governments: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Over 2,300 Leaders, 1945 through 1992. McFarland & Company, Inc., 1994, p. 411. ISBN 0-89950-926-6.