BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum has been named the new president of Iraq. Parliamentarians voted him into office after being addressed by the UN Secretary-General. Ban Ki-moon insisted a more inclusive government, would be the only way for Iraq to overcome its crisis.
Fouad Massoum was a founding member of the independence-leaning Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, but is considered a moderate who measures his words and is known for keeping good relations with Sunni and Shi’ite politicians. He was voted in by Iraqi parliament shortly after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the session calling for a more inclusive government. Critics of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki allege he has ruled for the benefit of Shi’ites at the expense of everyone else, fuelling Kurdish separatism and a renewed Sunni insurgency. Ban Ki-moon told the parliament a government committed to unity could resolve Iraq’s troubles. But even before the parliamentarians had assembled an attack on security forces transporting suspected terror suspects left at least sixty people dead, 51 of them prisoners. That attack was significant because of the high number of fatalities, but also for its location, being carried out only twenty kilometers north of the capital.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
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