Iraq Names New President, Paving Way for Next Government

BAGHDAD—Iraq’s Parliament moved Thursday to end a yearlong deadlock over forming the country’s next government, choosing an independent Kurdish politician as the new president after a rocket attack nearby failed to disrupt the proceedings.

A majority of the lawmakers present in Parliament voted over two rounds to select Abdul Latif Rashid as president, a largely ceremonial post. Immediately after he was sworn in, Mr. Rashid asked Mohammed al-Sudani, a senior Shiite politician, to assemble a new government.