Dr Hussain al Shahristani has piercing blue eyes and the silvering remains of a head of wavy fair hair. The soft-spoken Iraqi oil minister, a devout Shiite Muslim, is also reputedly incorruptible and has more been sought after by men in power than a power-seeker himself.
It is those latter qualities that in May 2006 led Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, to pick Dr al Shahristani for one of the most important and difficult jobs in his cabinet: resuscitating the country’s ravaged oil and gas sector to help Iraq realise its potential as a world-class energy producer.
With parliamentary elections looming against a backdrop of rising Iraqi nationalism as US troops pull out of the country, that task has seldom seemed more daunting.
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