The office of Khaled Sultan Hashem in Mosul’s Al Ziraai neighbourhood is a throwback to the Baath era of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Moustachioed men in leather jackets with Uzis tucked into their belts usher dignitaries in to meet the newly elected MP.
Mr Hashem's father, Ahmed Sultan Hashem Al Taii, was known as Saddam’s top general and was the man who signed the surrender agreement with the US in the First Gulf War, before going on to serve as minister of defence.
When the US invaded, Ahmed Sultan was in the highest echelons of the regime. He featured as the eight of hearts on the US’s deck of playing cards, which listed the Iraq’s most wanted.
Now, his son has been elected to Iraq's Parliament as an MP for Nineveh governorate, a radical progression for a family once so close to Saddam’s inner circle.
Though Mr Hashem was initially barred from standing, the election commission eventually reversed the decision, allowing him to run for the Iraqi National Project list – as the results stand, he is their only MP in Nineveh.
Although he would not grant any interviews, he was happy to pose for a photo for The National.
Mr Hashem’s victory was something of an outlier in a governorate which largely turned its back on established names in the October 10 general election. While stalwarts of the past two decades such as former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki and the populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr performed well down south, in the troubled northern city occupied by extremist militants barely five years ago, the story is quite different.
The Al Nujaifi family, one of the biggest landowners in Nineveh, were wiped out electorally – with former vice president Osama Al Nujaifi losing his seat. His brother Atheel, who was governor when the city fell to ISIS, remains in exile in Erbil. Several other stalwarts of the governorate’s politics in recent years also lost their seats.
One of the winners in Nineveh was the Taqudum movement, a new list led by Mohammed Al Halbousi, the former speaker.
Mr Halbousi borrowed a tactic employed by former prime minister Haider Al Abadi’s Nasr coalition at the last election: inviting popular local figures to run on his list and relying on them to bring in votes from their communities. Among them is Muzahim Al Khayat, a former chancellor of Mosul University, who was elected in Nineveh’s second district.
Ahmed Al Jabouri, a shopkeeper in the eastern Mosul neighbourhood of Karama, said that though he felt there was little hope of change, he voted for a new candidate after a lifetime of supporting the Al Nujaifi family.
Another of Saddam’s former associates, cigarette mogul Khamis Khanjar, failed to perform despite pouring vast sums of money into the governorate. Mr Khanjar’s Azm movement picked up only one seat in Nineveh, mirroring a disastrous performance across the country.
“There were many independent candidates to choose from and even many of the bigger parties gave us new faces to vote for; there was more choice in this election,” Mr Al Jabouri said.
The Kurdish Democratic Party performed strongly, taking nine of the governorate’s 31 seats due largely to a strong showing among minority groups in the rural areas outside of Mosul, said Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi MP who was re-elected.
“We got a lot of support from minorities – there are many minority supporters of the KDP in Mosul among the Christians and the Shabak,” she told The National.
“I think some people have changed their minds about those big leaders, especially since ISIS in 2014. People in Nineveh know who the right people are to go to the Parliament."
Despite Nineveh’s Sunni majority, Iran-backed groups managed to make notable inroads through minority and independent candidates.
Waad Qado, the former head of the Hashed Al Shaabi’s 30th brigade, was elected as an independent.
The Hashed Al Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces are a militia umbrella organisation, comprising a variety of paramilitary groups mainly backed by Iran.
Though a Shabak, Mr Qado is widely regarded as close to the Iran-backed groups which dominate the PMF – some go as far as to call him Iran’s man in Nineveh. Posters on the main motorway to Mosul from Erbil show him next to Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, the former de facto head of the PMF, and Iranian general Qassem Suleimani. Both men were killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020.
Similarly, the governorate’s Christian quota seat went to the Babylon movement, a group widely seen as a proxy of the Iran-backed Badr organisation headed by Hadi Al Amiri.
Even in the north, Iran’s reach can be felt.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLA
Price, base / as tested Dh150,900 / Dh173,600
Engine 2.0L inline four-cylinder
Transmission Seven-speed automatic
Power 211hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 1,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.4L / 100km
MEFCC information
Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
READ MORE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS
Top 5 concerns globally:
1. Unemployment
2. Spread of infectious diseases
3. Fiscal crises
4. Cyber attacks
5. Profound social instability
Top 5 concerns in the Mena region
1. Energy price shock
2. Fiscal crises
3. Spread of infectious diseases
4. Unmanageable inflation
5. Cyber attacks
Source: World Economic Foundation
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
RESULT
Esperance de Tunis 1 Guadalajara 1
(Esperance won 6-5 on penalties)
Esperance: Belaili 38’
Guadalajara: Sandoval 5’
MATCH INFO
Asian Champions League, last 16, first leg:
Al Jazira 3 Persepolis 2
Second leg:
Monday, Azizi Stadium, Tehran. Kick off 7pm
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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World record transfers
1. Kylian Mbappe - to Real Madrid in 2017/18 - €180 million (Dh770.4m - if a deal goes through)
2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
3. Gareth Bale - to Real Madrid in 2013/14 - €101m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo - to Real Madrid in 2009/10 - €94m
5. Gonzalo Higuain - to Juventus in 2016/17 - €90m
6. Neymar - to Barcelona in 2013/14 - €88.2m
7. Romelu Lukaku - to Manchester United in 2017/18 - €84.7m
8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m
Notable Yas events in 2017/18
October 13-14 KartZone (complimentary trials)
December 14-16 The Gulf 12 Hours Endurance race
March 5 Yas Marina Circuit Karting Enduro event
March 8-9 UAE Rotax Max Challenge
