Mustafa al-Kadhimi chosen as Iraq's new prime minister

The Iraqi flag. — (Image credit: Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images)

Early Thursday, Iraq's Parliament selected Mustafa al-Kadhimi to serve as the country's new prime minister.

Iraqi officials have said the 53-year-old former intelligence chief is acceptable to both the United States and Iran, The New York Times reports. The country has been without a prime minister since late last year, when Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned amid anti-government protests; he has been leading a caretaker government.

Kadhimi has already met with protesters, taking a different approach from the previous government, which at times used the military against demonstrators. In addition to social unrest, Kadhimi will also have to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has locked down Iraq, as well as historically low oil and gas revenues. The government is Iraq's largest employer, the Times reports, and it's likely that within a few weeks, there will have to be pay cuts or mass layoffs.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.