Morgan Ortagus, Antoun Sehnaoui Threw the Party of UNGA Week

Last week, one of America’s most outspoken foreign policy voices, Morgan Ortagus, and Beirut's most notorious banker, Antoun Sehnaoui, opened the doors of their New York City home to welcome foreign officials to UNGA week and also to break the Yom Kippur fast.

After taking the Middle East by storm, the couple now spends their time entertaining the world’s elite in their Manhattan townhome. While they rarely discuss their relationship publicly, close friends say their shared passion for peace for Israel is at the center of their partnership. Sources called it an old-fashioned love story that happens to involve two of the most prominent figures in American and Lebanese politics.

Morgan Ortagus, the former Presidential Deputy Envoy to the Middle East who helped on the Abraham Accords and, more recently, the first direct Israel-Lebanon talks in three decades, hosted the break-the-fast and UNGA welcome reception alongside her partner, SGBL chairman Antoun Sehnaoui. Sehnaoui was recently named the first Lebanese donor to be inscribed on the walls of the Holocaust museum in Washington DC.

The glamorous pairing turned heads when they went public last year: a hardline American diplomat and one of Beirut's most formidable finance players, together. Since then, the two have quietly built a life in New York, splitting their time between New York, Washington, and the capitals of Europe.

Monday's gathering was filled with foreign policy types. Current and former Trump administration officials mixed with foreign ambassadors and media elites, all in town for UNGA week. Also, breaking the fast on Yom Kippur was a nod to Ortagus's ties to the Jewish community, and a signal, guests said, of exactly where the couple's sympathies lie in a region often defined by division.

Among the notable faces in attendance were Ambassador Jeff Bartos, Ambassador Jennifer Locetta, former Ambassador Oksana Markarova, Grayson Vincent, Roy Awabdeh, Jomana Qaddour, former Ambassador Timmy Davis, Hussein Abdul-Hussein, Matt Boyle, Wesam Hassanein, Hagar Chemali, John Hudson, Felicia Schwartz, Ed Wong, Abigail Williams, Eric Martin, and Daniella Cheslow.