President Barack Obama has named two senior officials to oversee U.S. actions regarding Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), the White House announced Friday. Following recent discussions with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama named Samantha Power, the senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council, “to coordinate the efforts of the many parts of the U.S. government on Iraqi refugees and IDPs,” the White House said in a statement. The White House also said Mark Storella, a senior Foreign Service officer who recently served as deputy chief of mission in Geneva, has arrived in Baghdad to take the position of senior coordinator for Iraqi Refugees and displaced persons. Storella “will coordinate our government's work in Iraq on refugees and IDPs, and will represent the United States in its dealings with the Iraqi government, the international community, and non-governmental organizations on these issues,” the statement said.
