About Jalal Talabani Jalal Talabani (Kurdish: جەلال تاڵەبانی / Celal Talebanî / Jelal Talebaní, Arabic: جلال طالباني‎, Persian: جلال طالبانی, Jalāl Tālabānī) (born November 12, 1933) is the current President of Iraq and a leading Kurdish politician. He is the first non-Arab president of Iraq. Talabani is the founder and secretary general of one of the main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He was a prominent member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council, which was established following the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime by the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Talabani has been an advocate for Kurdish rights and democracy in Iraq for more than 50 years.