Embassy of the United States, Baghdad
| Embassy of the United States, Baghdad | |
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Native name Arabic: سفارة الولايات المتحدة الامريكية بغداد |
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Chancery Building
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| Location |
 Baghdad, Iraq
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| Coordinates | 33°17′56″N 44°23′46″E / 33.299°N 44.396°ECoordinates: 33°17′56″N 44°23′46″E / 33.299°N 44.396°E |
| Opened | May 2008 |
| Ambassador | Stuart E. Jones (since 2014) |
 Location of Embassy of the United States, Baghdad in Iraq
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The Embassy of the United States of America in Baghdad is the diplomatic mission of United States of America in the Republic of Iraq. Ambassador Stuart E. Jones is currently the Chief of Mission.
At 104 acres (42 ha), it is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, and is nearly as large as Vatican City. The embassy complex is about five times the size of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, which is the second largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad, and over ten times the size of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which is the third largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad.
The Embassy opened in January 2009 following a series of construction delays. It replaced the previous embassy, which opened July 1, 2004 in Baghdad's Green Zone in a former Palace of Saddam Hussein. The embassy complex cost $750 million to build and reached a peak staffing of 16,000 employees and contractors in 2012.
The United States established diplomatic relations with Iraq in 1930 and opened a legation in Baghdad. The legation was upgraded to an embassy in 1946. A new building was designed by Josep Lluís Sert in 1955 and completed in 1957, with its main priority on keeping the building cool rather than security. This building remained the embassy until the Six-Day War of 1967, when the Arab countries broke off diplomatic relations with the United States.
In 1972, the embassy became the U.S. Interests Section of the Belgian Embassy to Iraq, as Belgium was the protecting power for the United States in Iraq. The U.S. Interests Section was again upgraded to an embassy in 1984 after the resumption of U.S.-Iraqi diplomatic relations. The building lost its embassy status just before the Gulf War, which caused a second breach of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The U.S. Interests Section was then re-established with Poland as the protecting power.
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