Biden nominates a Kurdish-American career diplomat as envoy to Egypt, says White House

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – US President Biden has nominated Herro Mustafa Garg, a Kurdish-American career diplomat, as the country’s ambassador to Egypt, the White House announced on Wednesday.

Prior to the nomination, Mrs. Garg was the US ambassador to Bulgaria.

“President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Herro Mustafa Garg to serve as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Arab Republic of Egypt,” the White House wrote in a statement.

She had previously served as deputy chief of mission in Portugal and as Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India.

Born in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in 1973, Mrs. Garg fled the Kurdish region with her family after the former Ba’athist regime launched a deadly offensive in the north. Staying for a while in Iran, she later migrated to North Dakota in the US.

Her father was a Kurdish political activist and an opponent of the former Iraqi authoritarian regime of Saddam Hussein.

“Being an immigrant refugee, you start with nothing,” she once told a group of students. “But it has taught me to set your aims high, achieve them and then aim even higher.”

As a polyglot, the diplomat speaks seven languages, including Kurdish, Arabic, Farsi, Greek, Hindi, Bulgarian, and Portuguese.

She holds a Bachelor’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Master’s from Princeton University. 

In Washington DC, she served as an adviser to the then-US Vice-President, Joe Biden, from 2009 to 2011, providing counsel on issues related to the Middle East, and south and central Asia.