Kurd sworn in as Iraq's interim president
Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was sworn in as Iraq’s interim president of Iraq today, capping a career spent opposing overthrown dictator Saddam Hussein.
He and his two vice presidents, also sworn in, were expected to name Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari as interim prime minister.
The long-awaited events will give Iraq its first freely elected government in 50 years, and its second set of interim leaders since the US-led invasion.
Once the Cabinet is finalised – likely sometime next week – the new government will begin working on drafting a permanent constitution.
Al-Jaafari’s rise to the prime minister’s job further consolidated the power shift in Iraq, where both the Shiite Arab majority and the Kurdish minority enjoy new-found power after decades of brutal oppression under Saddam’s Sunni-dominated regime.
Shiites have a majority of seats in the National Assembly, while Kurds have the second largest bloc. Sunni Arabs have disproportionately few seats, largely because many boycotted the January election or stayed home for fear of attacks at the polls.
Al-Jaafari spent more than two decades in exile, mainly in Britain and Iran, helping to lead anti-Saddam opposition forces in the Islamic Dawa Party, Iraq’s first Shiite Islamic political party.
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