Tawfiq al-Suwaidi

Tawfiq al-Suwaidi (; 11 May 1892 – 15 October 1968) was an Iraqi politician who served as Prime Minister of Iraq on three occasions between 1929 and 1950.

Early life and education Al-Suwaidi was born in Baghdad in 1892, he completed his early schooling at 16 and after a year in the local law college, travelled to Istanbul in 1909 where he continued his studies in the Istanbul College of Law. After graduating in 1912, Al-Suwaidi's was sent to the Sorbonne in Paris, by his father, to further his education. Al-Suwaidi returned to Iraq after finishing his studies in Paris in 1914. He joined the Ministry of Education as a secretary to the committee for the renovation of Shamsuddin Sami's famous French-Turkish Dictionary.

Career During the first world war, as well as working as a lawyer, Al -Suwaidi worked as a teacher in the Law college in Damascus, teaching Roman and general international law. He accepted these posts after rejecting a judgeship in Dair al-Zor and resigning from a judgeship in Damascus . Al-Suwaidi was said to prefer a professional salary paying position rather than a position of prestige in order to repay his father for his European education.

In 1928, upon the resignation of the Abdul Muhsin al-Sa'dun's ministry, Tawfik al- Suwaidi was appointed prime minister and called to form his first cabinet, which he assembled on 28 April. He became the youngest to hold the position in Iraq's history. His first premiership lasted only few months, in his memoire he suggested the reason might be the king didn't want to appoint him in the first place and preferred his successor Nuri al-Said.

He was Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq from 1948 to 1949.

In 1958, Tawfiq al-Suwaidi was selected as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Arab Federation. However, this post was dissolved when the royal regime fell in the 14 July Revolution. Because of his close ties to the crown, Suwaidi was arrested during the revolution that overthrew the monarchy. Sentenced to life in prison, he was pardoned in 1961 and went into exile in Lebanon, where he died in 1968. His body was moved to Baghdad for burial on the 16th of October.