Meet the new Iraqi President Barham Saleh

by **RamblerNash** Tue Oct 02, 2018 11:35 pm

Meet the new Iraqi President Barham Saleh

02-10-2018 10:23 PM

Saleh was born in Sulaymaniyah in 1960. He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Cardiff, and a PhD from the University of Liverpool in Statistics and Engineering Applications in Computer.

Saleh joined the ranks of the party by the end of the 1970s and became a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Europe, and later an official in the Foreign Relations Office in the British capital.

He was elected as a member of the Union's leadership at the party's first congress in 1992. He was tasked with running the Union's office in the United States, where he played a key role in publicizing the cause of the Kurds.

Saleh founded the American University in Sulaymaniyah, and served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University. He also has cultural activities in addition to his political activities. He chaired the Board of Trustees of the Iraqi Forum, an Iraqi democratic meeting that includes national and cultural figures and dignitaries from Iraqi society. And the "Hawa" project to support outstanding students in Iraqi universities in Baghdad, southern Iraq and Kurdistan.

Saleh was one of the most prominent political figures in the party. He held senior positions in it. He was an assistant to Jalal Talabani and held several posts in the Iraqi government after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 as the KRG president between 2001 and 2004.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Saleh became deputy prime minister in the interim Iraqi government in the second half of 2004, as minister of planning for the interim government in 2005, as deputy prime minister in Nuri al-Maliki's government.

Nominated by the Kurdish leadership as the head of the Kurdistan List in the legislative elections in Kurdistan in July of 2009, and was named by the Parliament of Kurdistan as the head of the new Kurdistan Regional Government in its meeting on 16 September 2009.

Saleh nominated himself for the presidency of the Republic in 2014, Fouad Masum, but did not get the support of the Kurdish forces in the region.

http://www.ikhnews.com/index.php?page=article&id=172921