Lt. Colonel (Ret) Sargis Sangari

Expert Topics:

Middle East conflicts and U.S. strategy: How Iran, its proxies, and the Sunni–Shia divide shape regional wars, threats to Israel, and U.S. force posture in the region.
Christian persecution and genocide: Targeting of Christians and other minorities in places like Nigeria, Iraq, and Syria, and what U.S. policy and faith-based groups can realistically do.
Terrorism and transnational threats: Evolution of ISIS, IRGC, and other terror networks, plus how transnational organized crime, sanctions evasion, and terror finance intersect.
America at war and homeland security: How overseas engagements affect U.S. security, economy, border vulnerabilities, and the readiness and morale of U.S. forces and veterans.
Great-power competition and rogue states: How Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea coordinate or exploit U.S. weaknesses, including in cyber, information warfare, and gray-zone conflicts.
Assyrian and minority futures in the Near East: The long-term viability of Assyrian and other indigenous communities, and what security, governance, and aid structures they need to survive.
Antisemitism and global instability: How rising antisemitism, online radicalization, and distorted historical narratives feed instability and threaten Western democracies.

Lt. Colonel (Ret) Sargis Sangari

Military Strategist | Middle East Foreign Policy | CEO: Near East Center of Strategic Engagement | Assyrians in Iraq & Syria | Russia | China |Ukraine

Name/Title: Lt. Col. (Ret.) Sargis Sangari, CEO, Near East Center for Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE)
Background: Iranian-born Assyrian who immigrated to the United States at age ten following the Iranian Revolution
Military service: 20-plus-year veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Operations Forces, with multiple combat deployments to Iraq and other missions across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Central America
Key combat/diplomatic roles: Led civil affairs and special operations missions, conducted hundreds of combat patrols and key leader engagements, and served in a diplomatic billet as Director of Host Nation Affairs in Kuwait
Think tank founder: Founded NEC-SE on September 11, 2014, as a geostrategic think tank providing political-military analysis on Middle East affairs for government and private-sector clients
Humanitarian leadership: Founder and president of United Assyrian Appeal (UAA), a 501(c)(3) supporting health, education, and welfare of Christians and other genocide survivors/displaced communities in the Near East and neighboring regions
Media and policy voice: Regular commentator and writer on foreign policy, Middle East conflicts, terrorism, and U.S. national security strategy, with appearances and bylines in various media outlets
Education: Bachelor of Science in Political Science and ROTC graduate from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois
Languages/skills: Multi-lingual special operations officer with experience in civil-military operations, governance, federalism, and humanitarian and disaster-relief missions

Contact Us

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Bio

LTC Sargis Sangari USA (Ret.) is a 20 plus year veteran of the United States Army Infantry and Special Operational Forces with multiple combat deployments to Iraq, a diplomatic assignment in Kuwait, and several other deployments to the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Central America. LTC Sangari is the CEO of the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE) and host of New Paradigms with Sargis Sangari and Founder of United Assyrian Appeal 501c3.

LTC Sargis Sangari is the CEO of the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement and the Founder of the non-profit The Assyrian Initiative. This initiative’s goal is to ‘Stop the Assyrian Genocide Before it’s Too Late‘!

US Army Lt. Col. (ret.) Sargis Sangari is the CEO of The Near East Center for Strategic Engagement LLC and Founder of the United Assyrian Appeal.

Besides his six years of combat deployment in the Mid East including 22 Special Forces missions, 144 combat patrols and commanding men during numerous enemy attacks. Sargis was accorded diplomatic status in Kuwait as Director of Host Nation Affairs. The United Assyrian Appeal focuses on assisting the Military Families of the Dwekh Nawsha/Assyrian Armed Forces to stabilize the well being of Assyrians in Iraq & Syria.

Lt Col. Sargis Sangari is a retired US Army Colonel who saw extensive combat in the Mid East as a Special Operations Forces soldier and who, after retirement, continues to advise the fledgling Assyrian Christian Army in Iraq known as Dwekh Nawsha* with his military expertise.

He found himself extremely busy since 2014. The phone continued ringing off the hook-all hours of the day-we were being hit with rockets and mortars, they tell me, in one of our sectors Daesh (ISIS) is trying to overrun us and outflank our sector, or there’s a suspicious vehicle approaching a checkpoint from behind the Forward Lines of Troops (FLOT).

We have to counterattack, call in airstrikes, against multiple targets, which we were not equipped to destroy. The multiple forces in Iraq still seek input and advice. There are wounded, limited paramedic capabilities. They get low on supplies or they have a problem with the Pesh (Peshmerga) letting them receive foreign fighters who would only gladly serve.” But they have other more basic problems. “The soldiers prefer to stay with their towns and villages to protect their immediate families but they have to feed them so they are forced to join Shia militias or Kurdish force structures or any others who pay them but thus leave their people unprotected to Islamic State and their region in the chaos of sectarian violence between Sunni Muslim Kurds, and Shia and Arab Sunnis”.

This is when United Assyrian Apeal.org, a 501C3 was formed to help their families and collects money to help feed the families so that their loved ones have the option of remaining in the ranks of the Assyrian Army and under an Assyrian Christian command and control.

Great America: LTC Sargis Sangari, USA (Ret.), CEO NEC-SE Video Biography

Videos

Projects

Podcast: New Paradigms – Host Lt. Col Sargis Sangari

Check out Lt. Col Sangari’s Youtube Channel

Project: The Assyrian Initiative

As ISIS continues to take territory across Libya, Egypt, Syria and Iraq in its pursuit of an Islamic Caliphate, the Christians of Assyria are struggling to survive as a people, a faith and a nation. Our Assyrian Project seeks to support the Assyrian people in Iraq in their struggle to protect their families, homes and homeland from brutal extinction. With timely support in the areas of security, governance and development, the Assyrian people will not only be able to halt and push back the threat from IS, but also establish a political presence in Iraq, thus strengthening their hold on their traditional homeland and its vast resources.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO ASSYRIAN MILITARY FAMILIES

NTD TV – Christian persecution and media silence
“Why are Governments and Media Silent on The Persecution of Christians?” – Panel interview with Chris Beers, Doug Burton, Anto Akkara, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, aired April 12, 2025.
Link: https://necse.net/2025/04/14/why-are-governments-and-media-silent-on-the-persecution-of-christian/
New Paradigms w/ Sargis Sangari – Iran–Israel conflict
Episode #191: “Next stage of Iran–Israel Conflict & the diminishing US footprint in the Middle East,” April 15, 2024 (Sangari as featured expert/hosted discussion).
Link: https://necse.net/2024/04/15/sargis-sangari-nec-se-ceo-next-stage-of-iran-israel-conflict-new-paradigms-w-sargis-sangari-ep191/
New Paradigms w/ Sargis Sangari – Episode #201
Episode #201 with David T. Pyne, Executive Vice President of Task Force on National & Homeland Security, June 24, 2024 (strategic threats, national/homeland security).
Link: https://rumble.com/v53iwsx-june-24-2024.html
New Paradigms w/ Sargis Sangari – Episode #203
Episode #203 with Jim Pfaff, President of Conservative Caucus, July 8, 2024 (policy, politics, and national direction).
Info: https://necse.net/2024/07/

Articles

Other Guests:

Steve and Dr. Kathy Boyls

In December 2021, Steve Boyls entered the ICU with COVID-19 and soon lay unconscious on a ventilator as doctors warned his wife, Dr. Kathy, to prepare for the worst. While Kathy fought for his life through prayer and medical advocacy, Steve’s spirit was ushered into Heaven, where he encountered breathtaking beauty, reunited with loved ones—including their miscarried son—and received an urgent message that Jesus is returning very soon. Their intertwined journeys—one in a hospital room, one in the courts of Heaven—reveal a single, stunning truth: miracles still happen, and God still answers the prayer of faith.

Steve Keller

Steve Keller is an entrepreneur, industry pioneer, and former financial executive whose new memoir, Pay to Play, tells the astonishing true story of how he helped build the modern life settlement industry—turning a controversial idea into a multibillion‑dollar market—only to collide with powerful corporate and political interests when he refused to “play the game.” As founder and CEO, Keller was at the center of an innovation that provided cash to terminally ill policyholders in exchange for life insurance benefits, challenging some of the insurance industry’s most lucrative practices and drawing the ire of entrenched players and their allies. In Pay to Play, he gives a first‑hand account of the financial boom, the pressure and pay‑to‑play politics he says targeted his firm, and the years of legal battles, exile, and prison that followed—offering an insider’s look at the collision of business, power, and the American Dream.

Dr. Torsten Trey

Founder & Executive Director, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH)

Dr. Torsten Trey, M.D., Ph.D. is the founder and Executive Director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), a Washington, D.C.-based medical ethics NGO that unites physicians worldwide to document unethical transplant practices and advocate for reform. He founded DAFOH in 2006 and has since become a leading researcher, author, and expert on forced organ harvesting.

Hooman Khalili

Hooman Khalili is an Iranian-born, San Francisco–raised radio personality, filmmaker, and mural artist whose work bridges entertainment, faith, and “mural diplomacy” between the Iranian and Jewish peoples. Over two decades in media and a growing portfolio of high-impact public art, he has built a unique platform that connects Hollywood, Israel, and the global struggle for freedom in Iran.

Dr. Isik Abla

Dr. Isik Abla’s story reads like a front‑page feature: a young woman raised in a strict Muslim home in Istanbul, trapped in a brutal marriage to an extremist, fleeing to America after a near‑fatal attack—and then transforming into a global broadcaster whose insights on Islam, Sharia, Iran, and religious freedom now inform audiences in more than 200 countries.

Franc Utoo

Drawing from his own experience on the front lines of persecution, he offers rare, first‑hand insight into how terrorism, corruption, and weak institutions impact ordinary families across Nigeria and West Africa. Franc’s work centers on elevating the voices of victims—especially women and children—while pressing governments, international organizations, and faith communities to confront atrocities with both courage and accountability.

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