Experts will discuss future of Iraq at group’s meeting

Janabi Newton

Two experts with extensive personal experience in Iraq will discuss the next steps for that country at a World Affairs Council program in Richmond tomorrow.

Nazar Janabi served from 2004 to 2006 as director general for defense policy and requirements in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

He is a Next Generation fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, focusing on Iraqi and Middle Eastern security issues and democratization in the region.

A former Iraqi army officer and engineer by training, Janabi returned to Iraq after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003 from six years abroad to found the Human Rights Center in Diwanya.

Former U.S. Ambassador David G. Newton is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington. From 1984 to 1988, he was the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq after the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and he was ambassador to Yemen from 1994 to 1997.

In February 1998, immediately after his retirement from a 36-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, he was appointed a special envoy for public diplomacy, traveling to 12 Arab countries to explain U.S. policy on Iraq to the media and the public.

Newton also served for six years in Prague as the first director of Radio Free Iraq, part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond's program will begin with registration at 5 p.m. at the Omni Richmond Hotel, 100 S. 12th St., followed by the speakers at 5:45 p.m.

The cost is $10 for council members and $20 for non-members. Students are admitted free. -- Peter Bacqué