{{Short description|Iraqi politician (born 1949)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Fuad Hussein | image = Fuad Hussein 2025 (cropped).jpg | image_size = 220px | alt = | caption = Hussein in 2025 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|6|1|df=y}} | birth_place = Khanaqin, Kingdom of Iraq | order = | office1 = Minister of Finance | prime_minister1 = Adil Abdul-Mahdi | term_start1 = 25 October 2018 | term_end1 = 7 May 2020 | monarch1 = | predecessor1 = Abdul Razzaq al-Issa | successor1 = Ali Allawi | office = Minister of Foreign Affairs | term_start = 6 June 2020 | prime_minister = Mustafa Al-Kadhimi<br>Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani<br>Ali al-Zaidi | predecessor = Mustafa Al-Kadhimi {{small|(acting)}} | successor = | office2 = Chief of Staff President of Iraqi Kurdistan | term_start2 = 14 June 2005 | term_end2 = 1 November 2017 | president2 = Masoud Barzani | predecessor2 = | successor2 = ''Vacant'' | party = Kurdistan Democratic {{small|(1966–1974, since 1983)}}<br />Patriotic Union of Kurdistan {{small|(1974–1983)}} | death_date = | death_place = | citizenship = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = University of Baghdad | occupation = | profession = | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | native_name = {{nobold|فؤاد حسين}} | native_name_lang = ar }}
'''Fuad Mohammed Hussein''' ({{langx|ar|فؤاد محمد حسين}}; {{Langx|ku|فوئاد حوسێن|Fuad Ĥûsên}}; born June 1, 1949)<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/250920181|title=From the shadows to presidency: Meet Fuad Hussein|work=Rudaw|access-date=2018-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=8 June 2020|title=فوئاد حوسێن: ئامادەکارییەکانمان بۆ گفتوگۆی ستراتیژی لەگەڵ ئەمریکا دەستپێکردووە|language=ku|work=Rûdaw|url=https://www.rudaw.net/sorani/middleeast/iraq/080620202|access-date=9 June 2020}}</ref> is an Iraqi politician from the Kurdistan Democratic Party who is the current minister of foreign affairs.<ref>{{Cite news|date=6 June 2020|title=Kurds secure cabinet positions as Baghdad fills vacant ministries|url=https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/06062020|access-date=2020-06-06|website=www.rudaw.net}}</ref> He was previously the minister of finance in the Government of Adil Abdul-Mahdi.<ref name=Relief>{{Cite news|url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/ishm-october-19-25-2018|title=ISHM: October 19 – 25, 2018 – Iraq|work=ReliefWeb|access-date=2018-10-27|language=en}}</ref>
== Background == Hussein was born in Khanaqin, a city in Diyala Province, Iraq, in 1946.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/230920182|title=KDP nominates Fuad Hussein for Iraqi president|work=Rudaw|access-date=2018-10-31}}</ref> He is Feyli Kurdish, Shia Muslim and married to a Dutch woman.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/29092018?keyword=Fuad%20Hussein|title=Exclusive interview with Iraq presidential candidate Fuad Hussein|work=Rudaw|access-date=2018-10-31}}</ref> He moved to Baghdad in 1967 and graduated from Baghdad University in 1971 with a degree in English literature.<ref name=":2" /> While in Baghdad he joined the Kurdish Student Union and then the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In 1975, after the Kurdish defeat in the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War, Hussein moved to the Netherlands, where he attained a Bachelor's and Master's degree in international relations from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://mofa.gov.iq/curriculum-vitae/|title=Curriculum Vitae – Fuad Hussein|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Iraq}}</ref> He led the Kurdish students union abroad from 1976 and became the deputy head of the Kurdish Institute in Paris in 1987. He married a Dutch woman while in the Netherlands.
He speaks fluent Kurdish, Arabic, Dutch and English. After the removal of Saddam Hussein, he was an adviser to the Ministry of Education and was in charge of designing a new educational curriculum.<ref name=":2" />
It was reported that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Fuad Hussein held a meeting with Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak on the development of economic relations between Iraq and Turkey at the 49th World Economic Forum (WEF) summit held in Davos, Switzerland in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-25 |title=Fuad Hüseyin ve Berat Albayrak Davos'ta görüştü |url=https://www.kurdistan24.net/tr/story/436179 |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=Kurdistan 24 |language=tr}}</ref>
== Politics == He was appointed as Chief of Staff of Masoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government. In September 2018, the Kurdistan Democratic Party nominated him to be President of Iraq. Under the Iraqi political tradition of ''muḥāṣaṣah'', the presidency was reserved for a Kurd. The KDP claimed the right as the largest Kurdish political party in the May general election to nominate their candidate.<ref name=":1" /> The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan also nominated a candidate, Barham Salih, and the two parties were unable to agree a consensus. This meant that the decision went to a secret ballot of the newly elected MPs in the Council of Representatives—a first since the invasion of Iraq. Salih won the election with 219 votes to 22.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/iraq-parliament-elects-barham-salih-president-181002182042929.html|title=Iraq: Parliament elects Barham Salih as new president|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=2018-10-31}}</ref> [[File:Fuad Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Iraq, meets Marco Rubio at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., April 25. 2025.jpg|left|thumb|Hussein meets with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., in April 2025.]] Less than a month afterwards, Hussein was nominated as a KDP candidate for the Finance Ministry. Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi proposed him and this was approved by parliament on 24 October 2018.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=24 October 2018|title=House of Representatives gives confidence to Abdul Mahdi and 14 ministers|url=https://dinardetectives.com/alforat-news-334/|access-date=2018-10-29|website=Al Forat News, via dinardetectives.com|language=en-US}}</ref>
In August 2020, during a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington D.C., Hussein said that his country had signed an agreement with U.S. oil company Chevron Corporation as a memorandum of understanding with Iraq to execute the exploration work in Iraq's southern Nassiriya oilfield, one of the country's large oil fields, which is estimated to hold about 4.4 billion barrels of crude.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iraq-oil-chevron/iraq-chevron-seen-signing-deal-wednesday-iraqi-foreign-minister-idUSKCN25F1Y0 Iraq, Chevron seen signing deal Wednesday: Iraqi foreign minister]. 19 August 2020. ''Reuters''. Retrieved 2020-08-24.</ref>
In February 2024, he told BBC News that Iraq could potentially be pushed into conflict due to escalations in the Iran–Israel proxy conflict.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 February 2024 |title=Iraq could be pushed into conflict, minister warns |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68256069 |access-date=2024-02-10 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Fuad Hussein}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Abdul Razzaq al-Issa}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister of Finance of Iraq|years=2018–2020}} {{s-aft|after=Ali Allawi}} |- {{s-bef|before=Baha Araji}} {{s-ttl|title=Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq|years=2018–present}} {{s-inc}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussein, Fuad}} Category:Deputy prime ministers of Iraq Category:Living people Category:University of Baghdad alumni Category:Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni Category:Iraqi Shia Muslims Category:Kurdistan Democratic Party politicians Category:1946 births Category:Finance ministers of Iraq Category:Iraqi Kurdistani politicians Category:People from Khanaqin Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Iraq