Iraq

Iraq’s embassy in Washington, D.C. has hired national law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to lobby on behalf of the Middle Eastern nation to policymakers on Capitol Hill.

BHFS is charged with communicating Iraq-related issues including immigration, defense, economics and overall foreign policy with congressional leadership, administration officials and senior agency staff in Washington, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed on January 31.

Iraq is one of seven nations — along with Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia — targeted by President Trump’s January 27 executive order that temporarily bans travelers from those majority-Muslim nations from entering the U.S. The order also blocks Syrian refugees from entering the country indefinitely.

A federal judge in Seattle blocked key parts of the order in early February, allowing travelers that had been barred from entering the country, but the Justice Department two days later filed an appeal in federal appeals court to reinstate the travel ban. The Ninth Circuit in San Francisco is now considering whether Trump’s action violated constitutional protections against religious discrimination. Trump today referred to the hearing as “disgraceful.”

BHFS is currently in the process of negotiating a written contract for the work. The pact was signed by Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S., H.E. Fareed Yasseen.