Fawzi Hariri

Who is Fawzi Hariri?

Fawzi Franso Toma Hariri is Iraq's Minister of Industry and Minerals. He was sworn in on May 20, 2006. Despite inaccurately being labeled as Kurdish throughout different media reports, Hariri is of Assyrian origin and son of the politician Franso Hariri. Fawzi Hariri lived for 16 years in London where he worked for British Airways. Like his father, he is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq.

He is currently Iraq's Minister of Industry, after being elected in the December 2005 elections as a member of the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan. Fawzi has been quoted as saying "We will always be grateful to the Americans for overthrowing Saddam Hussein".

An attempt on his life in October 2006 killed three bodyguards and 11 others, though Hariri was not in the traveling convoy at the time of the explosions, since his staff had merely been taking the vehicles to refuel. The attack in Baghdad, occurred in the mainly Christian quarter of Dora, where twin car bombs went off within minutes.