Iraqi Interim Government

The Iraqi Interim Government was created by the United States and its coalition allies as a caretaker government to govern Iraq until the drafting of the new constitution following the National Assembly election conducted on January 30, 2005. The Iraqi Interim Government itself took the place of the Coalition Provisional Authority (and the Iraq Interim Governing Council) on June 28, 2004, and was replaced by the Iraqi Transitional Government on May 3, 2005.

It was recognized by the U.S., the United Nations, the Arab League and several other countries as being the sovereign government of Iraq (see Iraqi sovereignty for more information). The U.S. retained significant de facto power in the country and critics contend that the government existed only at the pleasure of the United States and other coalition countries, whose military forces still remain in Iraq. The coalition did promise that its troops would leave if the new sovereign government requested it, but no such request was made.

The government's head of government was Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his deputy was the influential and charismatic Barham Salih. The ceremonial head of state was President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer. They were all sworn in at a second and more public ceremony on June 28, 2004, shortly after the small private one at which L. Paul Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority's administrator, formally gave chief justice Midhat Mahmoud the legal documents instituting the hand-over.

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