Iraqiya bloc names Hashemi as president – member

BAGHDAD /Iraqi News Al-Iraqiya bloc’s Tajdeed (Renewal) List is “still” calling that incumbent Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi be the president of Iraq, dismissing a spokeswoman’s statements as “personal”. “The al-Iraqiya bloc agrees that the post of president of Iraq should be occupied by an Arab person and still wants the post to be specifically reserved for Tareq al-Hashemi,” Abdulkareem al-Samarraie said in an interview with the semi-official al-Iraqiya news channel. Al-Iraqiya spokeswoman Maysoon al-Damlooji earlier said that there was no one named for the presidential post in Iraq. “Damlooji’s statements were personal and did not represent the bloc’s opinion. This is what we have been told by the bloc leader (former premier) Iyad Allawi,” Samarraie noted. The current president of Iraq is Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and the leader of one of Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). AmR (P) 1