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Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. visits San Diego

The Iraqi Ambassador to the United States will be in San Diego later today to meet with members of San Diego's large Iraqi community. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. visits San Diego

The Iraqi Ambassador to the United States will be in San Diego later today to meet with members of San Diego's large Iraqi community. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Samir al Sumaidaie was named as Iraq's Ambassador to the United States two years ago, but this is his first visit to San Diego.  

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Many of the more than 20,000 Iraqis living in San Diego are Kurds from Northern Iraq.  Raving Barwari, with the Kurdish Human Rights Watch in San Diego, says the Iraqi Ambassador's visit is an historic event for the community, which has not had access to a sympathetic Iraqi government agency for decades.  

Barwari:   because for a Kurdish family for example in the 80s the Iraqi embassy was not a place you could go to for help, it was the opposite  because it was the Baath government, their embassies were used for spying on communities for Kurdish people out here  so for Kurdish people it is a major turn around that now there is a sense of hope

Barwari says many Iraqi expatriates in San Diego still own land or property in Iraq and have relatives there. He says they hope an effective Iraqi embassy in Washington will make it possible to resolve transactions left in limbo because of the ongoing political uncertainty.
Alison St John, KPBS news.

The Iraqi Ambassador will  host a public meeting at the Ronald Reagan Community Center in El Cajon this evening at 5:30 p.m.