His Bio

Ali Hatem Abdul Razzaq Al-Suleiman, leader of the Dulaim Zubaidi tribe, one of the largest sunny tribes in al-Anbar, was born in 1971 in Baghdad and grew up in Ramadi city, the center of the Iraqi city of Anbar in the west of Iraq, then returned to Baghdad to study in school. His grandfather, Ali al-Suleiman, led the confederacy of Anbar during the founding of Iraq (monarchy – British colonialism times), Its members are mostly located in Anbar Governorate.

before 2003

He graduated from high school, he didn’t complete his studies because, as he says in a T.V interview, “he hates studying,” because it is boring and difficult, but he realizes that his early involvement in the tasks of the sheikhdom led him to drop out of educational attainment, he does no work other than the sheikhdom, and sometimes he does some trade business for his relatives and his clan.

after 2003

After the US invasion in 2003, Ali Hatem’s role was to hold Dulaim tribe as a political force in the midst of al-Qaeda in their regions. This rebellion targeted his relatives as well as the Americans, and he found himself between the American presence and Al-Qaeda. In 2006, Ali and a group of Anbari youth used American financial and logistical support to fight al-Qaeda in what was known as the Sahwa movement, which defeated al-Qaeda and later fought an internal Sunni conflict against the Iraqi Islamic Party, which monopolized the political representation of Sunnis in the political process. When many Sunnis feared the Shiite militias, Ali Hatem visited Sadr City and walked from his jeep to a crowd that included thousands of Sunnis and Shiites alike, in a sign of his closeness to Muqtada al-Sadr.

He also played roles described as pragmatic, while his opponents described them as opportunists. While most Sunni politicians despised Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Ali Hatem bet on an alliance with him under the first Maliki government, which lasted until 2010 when it collapsed as a result of rising sectarian tensions.  When his political formation “Bayarq Iraq” allied with the party of Dawla al- Qanon  in the parliamentary elections, Suleiman obtained government contracts and bet on the prime minister as a man of the future, and nominated his younger brother Abdul Rahman to parliament on al-Maliki’s list in the 2010 elections. The alliance between the two, until tension reached in 2011, led Maliki to send troops to Ali Hatem’s riverside office in Baghdad and expel him. But when he failed to win a parliamentary seat, the tension between the two soured, until tension reached in 2011 that Maliki sent troops to Ali Hatem’s riverside office in Baghdad and expelled him.

Ali Hatem returns after an absence of 8 years, because he was accused of having brought terrorism into Anbar through the sit-in squares 2011 – 2014 , after the armed clash struggles of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. His return to Baghdad caused mutual accusations between the Sadrist movement and the coordination framework, Where the ” Sadrist movement ” accused “the framework” of being behind this step to use it in opposing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Muhammad al-Halbousi, which was strongly denied by “the framework”, accusing on its part, “regional” parties, of working on the return of Suleiman to create political problems . Al-Suleiman is wanted by the Iraqi judiciary, for incitement and leading the sit-in squares in Anbar, which some consider a gateway for ISIS to enter the country and collaborating with them in the summer of 2014. As a result His return caused criticism and speculation as a plan to confuse the political situation in the country.