Grandson of the Last Iraqi King Plans to Return to Baghdad

The grandson of the last Iraqi King Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, the leader of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement in Iraq, plans to return to Baghdad in the next few days. The Sharif's adviser Ali Faisal Abd al-Majid spoke about it on Wednesday in an interview with the Iraqi Al-Zaman newspaper. "Our movement comes out for holding a referendum in the country at which the Iraqi people will determine the nature of the future state system in the country," said the adviser.

Since Iraq gained independence in 1921, it was a monarchic state. After the 1958 revolution King Faisal II and his son Ghazi were executed. Sharif Ali, the son of the daughter of the last monarch, is not considered to be a direct heir of the Iraqi crown. The members of the Jordanian Hashemite Royal House, now reigning in the country, have greater rights to this crown. The first King of Iraq Faisal I was the brother of Emir Abdallah of the Kingdom of Jordan.