Samir Sumaida'ie, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., will give a public lecture, "U.S.-Iraq Relations: A Turning Point," Thursday, Sept. 29, at Duke University.
Sumaida'ie's talk will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in White Lecture Hall on East Campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Mbaye Lo, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies who teaches a course on Al Qaeda's terrorism at Duke, invited Sumaida'ie to speak to his students.
"He is a living history of the two countries' relationship: someone who witnessed Saddam Hussein's rule, worked with his government, and then engaged with the U.S. reconstruction of Iraq following the 2003 invasion," Lo said. "He brings a pragmatic understanding of the U.S.-Iraq relationship in this critical juncture of their relationship."
Sumaida'ie was appointed as Iraq's permanent representative to the United Nations in 2004. Two years later he moved to Washington, D.C., to become Iraq's first ambassador to the U.S. since 1991. Prior to his appointment he served as Minister of the Interior in Baghdad. In addition, he served as a member of the Governing Council in Iraq, overseeing the country's telecom and media industries as well as public broadcasting.
The talk is sponsored by the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies department, the Duke University Middle East Studies Center and the Duke Islamic Studies Center.