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Kurdish parliament agrees on Barzani as president
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, June 9 (Reuters) - The Kurdish parliament in
northern Iraq has approved in principle a draft law naming veteran
Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani as president of the region, Kurdish
politicians said on Thursday.
The draft law, due to be approved formally by the parliament on
Saturday, stipulates that Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), will serve for four years.
Kurds came in second in Iraq's Jan. 30 national elections behind the
Shi'ites. Both groups, which were oppressed by toppled Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, have been propelled to power.
But political rivalries have strained ties between the Kurds and
slowed efforts to build a regional government in the north.
Barzani's rival Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), is Iraq's current president. The PUK and KDP fought a
civil war in the north in the mid 1990s.
The Kurds, who secured autonomy from Saddam's rule in 1991 with U.S.
military help, have been pushing for a federal Iraq with the oil
centre of Kirkuk as the Kurdish capital. That demand has angered other
Arabs and Turkmen vying for influence in the city that lies south of
the present Kurdish region.
Barzani is the son of Kurdish nationalist leader Mustafa Barzani.
06/09/05 17:46 ET
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, June 9 (Reuters) - The Kurdish parliament in
northern Iraq has approved in principle a draft law naming veteran
Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani as president of the region, Kurdish
politicians said on Thursday.
The draft law, due to be approved formally by the parliament on
Saturday, stipulates that Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), will serve for four years.
Kurds came in second in Iraq's Jan. 30 national elections behind the
Shi'ites. Both groups, which were oppressed by toppled Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, have been propelled to power.
But political rivalries have strained ties between the Kurds and
slowed efforts to build a regional government in the north.
Barzani's rival Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), is Iraq's current president. The PUK and KDP fought a
civil war in the north in the mid 1990s.
The Kurds, who secured autonomy from Saddam's rule in 1991 with U.S.
military help, have been pushing for a federal Iraq with the oil
centre of Kirkuk as the Kurdish capital. That demand has angered other
Arabs and Turkmen vying for influence in the city that lies south of
the present Kurdish region.
Barzani is the son of Kurdish nationalist leader Mustafa Barzani.
06/09/05 17:46 ET