Salih a favourite of Western diplomats

Veteran Kurdish politician Barham Salih was elected president on Tuesday in a hotly contested race.

Salih, 58, was chosen as president, a largely ceremonial post, after trouncing his Kurdish rival by a vote of 219 to 22, signalling the overwhelming support among the legislature’s vast Arab majority for Salih’s brand of conciliatory politics.

The vote showed how the sectarian loyalties within Iraq’s Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab communities that prevailed since the US invasion in 2003 are now breaking down, giving way to more pragmatic coalitions that cut across sectarian lines.

Salih, who has previously served as deputy prime minister of Iraq and prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government, is seen as a moderate Kurdish figure who favours maintaining strong relations with both the United States and Iran while promoting Kurdish interests through cooperation with Iraq’s central government rather than confrontation.

British-educated politician

The urbane, British-educated politician is a favourite with Western diplomats and American military generals and founded the American University of Iraq Sulaimani in 2007.

Salih could improve relations between Iraq’s Kurds and the central government in Baghdad after a Kurdish bid for independence last year threatened armed conflict. But his ascension to the presidency has deepened growing acrimony within the KRG’s dynastic politics.

Salih, who reluctantly supported the independence referendum, was seen as a much more palatable option for Arab lawmakers over Kurdish Democratic Party nominee Fouad Hussain, the former chief of staff to powerful party leader Masoud Barzani who was one of the architects of the independence movement.

The president of Iraq remains a largely ceremonial position, with the prime minister holding the vast majority of executive power.