DHAKA: Iraqi MPs have elected Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum as president, succeeding Jalal Talabani.

Massoum, 76, is a founding member of Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.

Since 2003 Iraq’s president has always been a Kurd, while the prime minister is a Shia and the parliamentary speaker drawn from the Sunni Arab bloc.

Iraq is facing a radical Sunni insurgency and is struggling to agree on a new coalition government, reports the BBC.

BDST: 1829 HRS, JUL 24, 2014