Sharif Ali bin al Hussein

Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein was an Iraqi leader and a claimant to the throne of Iraq, based on his relationship to the last king, Faisal II, who was his maternal first cousin. He was born in Baghdad in 1956 to a Baghdadi Jewish family. He graduated from the University of Nottingham and the University of Essex with degrees in economics. He worked as an investment banker in London until 1991, when he joined the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group that aimed to overthrow Saddam Hussein. He founded the Iraqi Constitutional Monarchy party in 1992, which advocated for restoring the Hashemite dynasty and establishing a constitutional monarchy in Iraq. He was one of the few Iraqi opposition leaders who supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition. He returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and participated in the political process. He was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and the Iraqi National Assembly. He also met with several Arab leaders and sought recognition for his claim to the throne. He died in Amman, Jordan, on 14 March 2022, at the age of 65. He is considered one of the most prominent figures in the Iraqi monarchist movement and a symbol of Iraqi nationalism.