BAGHDAD (IRAQ): Iraqi President
Barham Salih
appointed
Adnan al-Zurfi
as the country's new prime minister-designate in an effort to resolve a months-long political crisis.
Al-Zurfi has 30 days to form his cabinet which would then go for a vote of confidence in Iraq's fractious Parliament. The 54-year-old is a former governor of the holy Shia city of Najaf and heads the Nasr parliamentary grouping of former Prime Minister Haider-al Abadi, Al Jazeera reported.
Al-Zurfi will succeed interim Prime Minister
Adel Abdul Mahdi
, who quit in December following a widespread mass demonstrations against the government that many Iraqis see as corrupt, failing to provide them with basic services, and obliged to neighbouring Iran.
Al Zurfi's appointment came two weeks after Former Prime Minister-designate
Mohammed Allawi
withdrew his candidacy for the post, accusing political parties of obstructing him.
Al-Zurfi was a former official of the US-run authorities that took over Iraq after the 2003 US invasion that deposed former ruler
Saddam Hussein.