Kurdistan President issues decree asking Masrour Barzani to form new KRG cabinet

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The President of the autonomous Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani on Wednesday issued a formal letter asking Prime Minister-designate Masrour Barzani to form the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet.

Masrour Barzani will have 30 days to form a new government.

“I’m humbled by the support and confidence of President @masoud_barzani and KDP to serve as the next Prime Minister. To the Kurdistan Parliament, and every faction in the assembly, and to the President of the Kurdistan Region, I thank you for the trust you have bestowed,” Barzani wrote on his official Twitter account.

I’m humbled by the support and confidence of President @masoud_barzani and KDP to serve as the next Prime Minister. To the Kurdistan Parliament, and every faction in the assembly, and to the President of the Kurdistan Region, I thank you for the trust you have bestowed- mb. pic.twitter.com/Me6tRtk8aG

— Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) June 12, 2019

“Mindful of the enormity of the task, and of the legitimate needs and hopes of the Kurdistani peoples, I plan to present my cabinet within the next thirty days and call upon the political parties to recognise their solemn and national responsibility to help complete this process,” he said in another tweet.

The decree was issued a day after the Kurdistan Parliament named Masrour Barzani to the post of Prime Minister with 87 votes out of 97 attending lawmakers.

SHORT BIO ON MASROUR BARZANI

Born in 1969 in Erbil’s Balakayati area, Barzani became a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter at the age of 16 in 1985.

He is married and has three sons and a daughter.

Barzani earned a degree in International Studies at the American University in Washington DC, and continued his post-graduate studies in Peace and Conflict Resolutions in the same university.

In 1998, he returned to the Kurdistan Region and was elected by the KDP's 12th Congress to the Central Committee.

In 2010, he was elected to the Leadership Council and then selected as a KDP Politburo member.

In 2012, he was appointed by then-President Masoud Barzani as Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) to oversee the region’s security, military intelligence, and intelligence services.

Masrour Barzani founded the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) in 2005, which has played a key role in providing humanitarian aid to displaced people, refugees, and people in need across the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and abroad.

He played a crucial role in the fight against the Islamic State since 2014 as the Chancellor of the KRSC.

Barzani is the founder of the American University of Kurdistan (AUK) in Duhok, which opened in 2014, and acts as the AUK’s Chair of the Board of Trustees.

He speaks Kurdish, English, Persian, and Arabic.

Editing by Nadia Riva