Nechirvan Barzani to Take Over as Iraq Kurd Premier on March 7

Nechirvan Barzani will take over as the new prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region on March 7, the Kurdistan Regional Government said.

Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani will officially name his nephew to the post, with Imad Ahmad as deputy prime minister, and the pair will have 30 days to form a new government and submit it for a vote of confidence in parliament, Fouad Hussein, head of the KRG presidency’s office, said in a statement posted on the KRG website today.

Nechirvan Barzani, who served as KRG prime minister from 2006 to 2009, will replace Barham Salih under an agreement in which the two main parties in northern Iraq rotate the main government posts.

Iraq’s northern Kurdish region contains 45 billion barrels of oil and between 3 trillion and 6 trillion cubic meters of gas, KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said in September.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nayla Razzouk in Dubai at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net