Kurd leader is new Iraq President

Two Vice Presidents were also elected. Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shi’ite, was Finance Minister in the outgoing government, and Sunni Arab tribal leader Ghazi Yawar, was the previous President.

‘‘This is the new Iraq—an Iraq that elects a Kurd as President and an Arab former President as his deputy,’’ Speaker Hajem Al-Hassani said after the vote. ‘‘What more could the world want from us?’’

In Kirkuk, which sits on some of Iraq’s richest oil reserves and is claimed by Kurds, Turkish-speaking Turkmen and Arabs alike, leading to ethnic tension in recent months, hundreds of Kurds celebrated Talabani’s rise to power.

Talabani, hailed by a standing ovation in Parliament, pledged to work together with all ethnic and religious factions.

The Shi’ite alliance that won a slim majority in Parliament and the Kurdish coalition that came second in the polls have been arguing for weeks about forming a government.

They have also been trying to include representatives of the Sunni Arab minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein but was sidelined after most Sunni Arabs stayed away from the January polls due to intimidation and calls for a boycott. There are only 17 Sunni Arab lawmakers in the 275-member Parliament.

Disagreement over which Sunni Arab would be Vice-President held up a deal, but political leaders decided late on Tuesday to favour Yawar over elder Statesman Adnan Pachachi.

Now that the President and his two deputies have been appointed they must name a PM within two weeks. Shi’ites and Kurds have agreed that Islamist Shi’ite leader Ibrahim Jaafari should be Prime Minister, taking over from secular Shi’ite Iyad Allawi. —Reuters