BAGHDAD, June 14 (UPI) -- Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani was sworn in Tuesday as the first elected president of Kurdistan province in northern Iraq.
An official ceremony was held in the summer resort of Salaheddine near the province capital of Erbil and was attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, many ministers and parliament members in addition to foreign diplomats.
Barzani, chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Talabani who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, shared control of Iraq's Kurdistan after the central Baghdad government lost control over the province in the wake of the Gulf war in 1990.
The two Kurdish leaders ratified the law for the presidency of the province last week, opening the way for Barzani to become president.
