BAGHDAD, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The parliament of Iraq's Kurdistan semi-autonomous region on Wednesday elected Masrour Barzani as the new prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and approved his cabinet, the Iraqi official television reported.
The lawmakers of the 111-seat parliament granted 88 votes in favor of Barzani, who was then officially sworn in as the new prime minister of the KRG, the state-run Iraqiya channel said.
The lawmakers then voted in favor of Qubad Talabani with 73 votes for the post of deputy prime minister. Then they approved all the remaining 21 candidates for the cabinet. All the new cabinet members were sworn in individually.
Later on, Barzani delivered a speech and said that "this cabinet considers itself the servant of people and the top priority of the new government will be to provide services to the people," the channel quoted Barzani as saying.
"My top objective is to combat corruption and carry out reform. We will show no tolerance to the corruption," Barzani added.
Barzani hailed the developed relations between the KRG and the central government in Baghdad, saying that "Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has practically shown his goodwill for resolving the pending issues between Erbil and Baghdad."
"Erbil and Baghdad both want security and prosperity built on a foundation of mutual respect and cooperation," he said.
"This will include securing our rightful share of government revenue by settling once and for all the distribution formula that determines the annual budget allocation for Kurdistan," he added.
Masrour Barzani, 50, is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KPD) leadership and son of former Kurdistan Region's President Masoud Barzani. He was also the chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council.
Barzani joined the Kurdish resistance fighters, known as Peshmerga, in 1985 at the age of 16, against former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
He also participated in the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War.
