| Khaled Al-Obaidi | |
| Office: | Defense Minister of Iraq |
| President: | Fuad Masum |
| Primeminister: | Haider al-Abadi |
| Term Start: | 18 October 2014 |
| Term End: | 19 August 2016 |
| Predecessor: | Saadoun al-Dulaimi |
| Successor: | Othman Ghanm (Interim) |
| Birth Place: | Mosul, Iraq |
| Party: | Azem Alliance |
| Otherparty: | Itihad al-Quwa al-Wataniyah |
| Profession: | Politician, aerospace engineer |
| Alma Mater: | University of Baghdad, Keele University |
| Branch: | Iraqi Air Force Iraqi Army |
| Rank: | Major general |
Khaled Yassin al-Obaidi (born 1959)[1] is an Iraqi politician who served as the defense minister of Iraq from 2014 to 2016.
Khalid Yassin al-Obaidi is a Sunni Muslim who was born in Mosul. He belongs to the al-Obaidi Sunni tribal confederation.[2] al-Obaidi is a member of the Iraqi parliament's Itihad al-Quwa al-Wataniyah bloc.[3] He holds two master's degree in engineering and military science as well as a doctorate in political science.[4] He served in the Iraqi Air Force, specialising in engineering aircraft engines until 2003 when he was appointed as a university professor by the Ministry of Higher Education. He was appointed as the Technical Education Authority by the Ministry of Education in 2007[4] and has also served as a security advisor for the President of the Parliament. He was nominated for the post of Defense Minister and accepted by the Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in 2010 but was rejected by Ayad Allawi, the Iraqi National List founder.[5] He was also a major general in the Iraqi Army.[2]
On 18 October 2014, he was appointed as the Defence Minister of Iraq.[6] In August 2016, al-Obeidi was voted out of power through a no-confidence vote in the parliament, with a majority of lawmakers voting against him over allegations of corruption. He is the first incumbent defence minister to receive a no-confidence vote in Iraq after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.[7] [8] Othman Ghanm was appointed to succeed him as the interim Defence Minister by the Iraqi government on 29 August 2016.[9]
In December 2017 an MP reported that an arrest warrant had been issued for al-Obaidi. Warrants were issued for 48 defence officials in total, including the air force commander.[10]
al-Obaidi later shifted to the Azem Alliance.[11] Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi appointed him as the head of the operations section of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service on 14 September 2020.[12]