April 11 (Reuters) – The Iraqi parliament on Saturday elected Kurdish politician Nizar Amedi as the country’s new president, a largely ceremonial role, following a parliamentary election nL1N3WT0SY last November.
Amedi, 58, is a former environment minister and has headed the political office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Baghdad since 2024.
Iraq is now due to choose a prime minister, a closely-watched and sensitive pick.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened in January to withdraw Washington’s support for Iraq, a major oil producer, if former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was designated to form a cabinet.
An alliance of Shi’ite political blocs holding a parliamentary majority has nominated Iran-backed Maliki L1N3YP06T, alarming Washington, which along with Israel waged a six-week war with Iran https://www.reuters.com/world/iran/ until a ceasefire was announced on Tuesday.
Senior U.S. and Iranian officials were meeting nL1N40U01A in Islamabad on Saturday in the highest-level talks between Washington and Tehran in half a century in an effort to end the war.
In Iraq, which has long trodden a tightrope between Iran and the U.S., its closest allies, the prime minister wields significant power.
Under Iraq’s sectarian power-sharing system, the prime minister must be a Shi’ite Muslim, the parliamentary speaker a Sunni Muslim, and the president a Kurd.
(Reporting by Muayad Hameed; Writing by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Jan Harvey and Gareth Jones)
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