The Iraqi parliament on Saturday, April 11, elected Nizar Amedi as the country’s new president. The Parliamentary election was held in November 2025. After electing their President, Iraq will now have to choose their prime minister. Amedi won after securing 227 votes, while his opponent Muthanna Amin Nader received 15. According to the reports, the vote to elect the Iraqi president took over two months.
Nizar Amedi was elected after a long decisive voting session was held in Parliament. As per the convention, Iraq’s president is always Kurdish. The prime minister is elected from Shiite community, while the Parliamentary speaker is Sunni.
Amedi’s election comes as Iraq is reeling from the fallout of the US-Israeli war on Iran. As the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, Iraq became caught in the middle of the conflict, with Iran-backed militias launching attacks on US bases and diplomatic facilities as well as on critical energy infrastructure.
Who is Nizar Amedi?
Nizar Amedi is a 58-year-old Kurdish politician. He is also a former is a former environment minister. Since 2024, Nizar Amedi headed the political office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Baghdad, Iraq. Amedi, who is also an engineer, was born in northern Iraq’s Dohuk province.
Amedi secured the position of President over a number of candidates that included Iraq’s current Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, who was the pick of the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Back in January, United States President Donald Trump had threatened to withdraw Washington’s support for Iraq, a major oil producer, if former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would form a cabinet.
The warning came after the Shhite political bloc alliance nominated Nouri al-Maliki as their leader, triggering alarm in the United States.
The election of Nizar Amedi has come just when the American and Iranian delegations have arrived in Islamabad for talks to end the war in West Asia, which has rattled global economies.
In Iraq, which has long trodden a tightrope between Iran and the US, its closest allies, the prime minister wields significant power.
According to the Constitution of Iraq, the President will now have 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government and assuming the position of prime minister.
The dominant bloc, the Shiite Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-allied parties, announced in January that it would nominate former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, despite opposition from Washington.
(With inputs from multiple agencies)
