Mora Namdar is expected to be named deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs handling Iran and Iraq.
That would make her the highest ranking Iranian-American in the Trump Administration, as far as the Iran Times has been able to track appointments to date. Most recent administrations have had an Iranian-American or two in an assistant secretary position, so this is a lower than usual ranking. However, past appointments of Iranian Americans have rarely had anything whatsoever to do with relations with Iran, while Namdar would be the person most directly dealing with Iran.
. . . top ranking Iranian
Right now, she is the acting assistant secretary of state for the Near East, filling in while the administration awaits Senate approval of Joel Rayburn, whom President Trump has nominated for the post. She was named to the acting position in May by Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he fired Tim Lenderking, a career Foreign Service officer who had been the acting assistant secretary.
Namdar worked in the first Trump Administration where she ended up spending the final month as acting assistant secretary of state for consular affairs.
She came into the second Trump Administration as an aide to the head of the Agency for Global Media where she was tasked with efforts to close Voice of America and other US broadcasters like Radio Farda.
In between she was one of the drafters of Project 2025, a guidebook for the Trump Administration done at the Heritage Foundation, which is very controversial for what is seen as far right proposals.
In the first Trump Administration, she was a deputy to the appointed head of VOA, Michael Pack, and was involved in an effort to fire Setareh Sieg, the head of the VOA Persian Service. In 2021, the State Department Inspector General criticized both Pack and Namdar for the way they handled allegations against six whistleblowers at the Agency for Global Media. Namdar was told she had potentially violated a rule that lawyers must not directly contact parties to a dispute who are known to have attorneys, but must go through their attorneys.
The Inspector General wanted to interview Namdar about her conduct. She asked for the interview to be delayed until she left office when the Biden Administration came in. The Inspector General agreed, but charged that after leaving federal service she refused to be interviewed.
Namdar was born in Texas to parents who fled the revolution. She speaks fluent Farsi. She got her undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, a master’s in international relations from The American University in Washington, DC, and a law degree from the Washington College of Law in Washington, DC. In between the two Trump terms, she had her own law firm in Washington.
