Barham Salih, who was elected the new President of Iraq last Tuesday, might be the breath of fresh air that Iraqi politics so badly needs. He also has the key distinction of being a politician who is respected and accepted both in Washington and Tehrann — the two main power brokers in Iraq.
Salih, a capable technocrat, emerged as the consensus candidate for President last week. He promptly appointed another capable technocrat — Adel Abdul Mahdi — as the Prime Minister of Iraq. Abdul Mahdi is an independent who has previously served as vice-president, oil minister and finance minister. Crucially, he also has a reputation for being a non-sectarian politician.
Iraq’s new leaders clearly have their work cut out for them. The country remains enmeshed in terrorism, corruption and lawlessness. Infrastructure in this oil-rich state is on the brink of total collapse and public services are nearly nonexistent.
And despite the credentials of both Salih and Abdul Mahdi, on the key Iraqi political issue of ties with the United States and Iran, there is expected to be continuity. Given the nature of Iraqi politics, both are likely to find that the scope of their actions on this front will be limited.
Salih’s emergence as president of the republic may also hint at a new development for Iraq: For the first time since the US-led invasion that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussain, Iraq has at the helm men who are avowedly independent and non-sectarian. There is guarded optimism that they will slowly take the country away from the sect and party-based system that has been the bane of its politics.
By unofficial agreement, the ceremonial but prestigious post of president in Iraq is reserved for a Kurd. Salih, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (one of the two rival parties that have dominated Kurdish politics for decades), won the votes of 220 of the 273 members of parliament who cast their ballots in last Tuesday’s session, beating the 19 other candidates. His nearest rival, Fouad Hussain, received just 22 votes.
The central government in Baghdad is likely to find in Salih a man who is willing to work with it. Salih’s election to the post also highlights the growing differences in the political leadership in Iraqi Kurdistan. Normally, the Kurds send to the presidential post in Iraq a candidate on whom they all agree internally. This was the first time the candidacy was strongly contested. The PUK’s rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, backed a candidate who was close to Massoud Barzani, the former president of the Kurdistan region and a major player in Kurdish politics. He pushed for a referendum on Kurdish independence last year, which ended in a debacle despite a ‘yes’ vote. Not only did the Kurds not get their independence, they also ended up losing existing territory and autonomy, following Iraqi army operations that had the backing of major regional powers, like Iran and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Salih’s position on the 2017 referendum may have played a role in so many MPs across the political divide voting for him. Unlike most leading Kurdish political figures, Salih had expressed his reservations about the referendum. He is also seen as being far more compromising on the issue of Kurdish independence than other politicians in the Kurdistan region.
Born in Sulaimaniyah in 1960, Salih has a doctorate in engineering from the United Kingdom. He has also previously served as prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, and as planning minister in the central government in Baghdad.
Like most opposition politicians in Saddam’s Iraq, he remained under the watchful eyes of the ever-present security services. He was active in Kurdish politics and was arrested in 1979. He spent 43 days in detention in the Special Investigation Commission in Kirkuk and was tortured while in prison.
Following his releases, Salih finished his high school diploma in Iraq before leaving for the UK. When Iraqi Kurdistan was “liberated” after Saddam’s defeat in the First Gulf War, Salih was elected as a member of the PUK leadership at the first party conference.
After the collapse of Saddam’s regime in 2003, Salih became deputy prime minister in the interim national government (in 2004), minister of planning in the Transitional Government (in 2005), and deputy prime minister in the Cabinet of the then prime minister Nouri Al Maliki. In this post, he played a key role in the economic sector in Iraq. He was the main force behind the so-called International Compact with Iraq — an initiative of mutual commitment between Iraq and the international community to help Iraq in meeting its obligations of “building a prosperous, democratic and federal country, in peace with itself and with the region and the world”.
In 2007, he founded the American University of Iraq — Sulaimaniyah, and was the chairman of its Board of Trustees.
In 2009, Salih led the Kurdistani List in the autonomous region’s legislative elections. His list bagged 59 of the 111 seats, and Salih became prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan. His term was a tumultuous one and he finally handed over power to his predecessor, Nechivaran Barzani, in 2012 as part of a political agreement between the ruling KDP-PUK coalition.
Salih is married to Sarbagh Salih, the head and founding member of the Kurdish Botanical Foundation and a women’s rights activist, and the couple has two children.
