Salahaddin, Kurdistan - Iraq (KRP.org) – Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani today formally charged Dr Barham Salih to form the next Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) at a ceremony in Salahaddin.

”Today I appoint you to officially form the government and I hope that you will consult with all the political parties in Kurdistan to form a broad-based government,” President Barzani said at today’s ceremony in Salahaddin.

The President also said, “We are proud and thankful for the previous government for their work” and hoped that the new government would complement and carry on the work of the previous one.

Dr Barham Salih, the new KRG Prime Minister will head the sixth cabinet since 1992. Mr Azad Barwari takes the post of deputy Prime Minister in the new government.

In presidential and parliamentary elections held in July in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan List representing the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) won around 60 percent of the popular vote. Dr Barham Salih is a prominent member of the PUK and was formerly Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, while Azad Barwari is a senior member of the KDP.