Iraq’s American diplomat

last updated 8 January 2015

Baghdad

Iraq’s new ambassador to the U.S. is a woman and an American citizen. Rend Rahim Francke was born in Iraq but educated abroad, in Britain and Paris; she became a U.S. citizen in 1987. As co-founder of the Washington, D.C.–based, pro-democracy Iraq Foundation, she has been a prominent advocate for regime change. In her first interview after the Iraqi Governing Council appointed her this week, Francke complained about “the American reluctance to take Iraqis, from the first day of liberation, as full partners in the political process.” Still, she expressed optimism for Iraq’s future. “The whole thing is evolutionary,” she said. “I think we are on the right path.”