Lukman Faily, who returned to his native Iraq in 2003 after 20 years in the west, presented his credentials as his country’s ambassador to the United States to President Barack Obama on July 18, 2013.
Faily is a Kurd who was born in 1966 in Baghdad. He left to attend college in England, earning a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1988. Faily went on to earn an M.B.A. and did post-graduate work in computing for commerce and industry. He remained in Britain after schooling, working in information technology jobs for companies such as Ceridian and Electronic Data Systems. Faily was active in Iraqi expatriate groups, particularly those opposed to the reign of Saddam Hussein.
After nearly 20 years abroad, Faily returned to Iraq in 2003 in the wake of the U.S. invasion. He quickly found work in that nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served there until 2010, reaching the rank of ambassador. In 2010, he had his first overseas posting, serving as Iraq’s envoy in Tokyo. In Japan, he ran in two marathons benefitting victims of that nation’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Faily was assigned to Washington in 2013. Since his arrival, he has been somewhat critical of the Obama administration, saying it should do more to help Iraq combat terrorism in its country. “The administration has to have a better understanding of any adverse impact of any delay in provision of support to Iraq,” Faily told The Washington Times. “ …We are no longer in a period in which we had President Bush, who took ownership of that relationship.”
Since his arrival in Washington, Faily has been active on Twitter (his handle is @FailyLukman) and has had public forums over his Twitter feed. Faily is still an active runner, ran in the 2014 Boston Marathon, raising money for Boston and Iraqi charities (and finishing in 6 hours 52 minutes and 54 seconds)
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Faily and his wife Lamis have four sons.
-Steve Straehley
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