Nahal Toosi (Farsi: نهال طوسى) is an Iranian-American foreign affairs correspondent for POLITICO based in Washington, DC. ^{[2] [8][5]}

Nahal Toosi was born in Iran and lived there until she was six years old. Amid increasing Bahai persecution following the Islamic Revolution, Nahal Toosi and her family fled the country, first to a refugee camp in Pakistan where they lived for several months, before finally settling in McKinney, Texas. Toosi graduated as valedictorian of McKinney High School, where she also earned varsity letters in track and cross country. ^[7]

Nahal Toosi enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the intention of studying chemistry, but decided to pursue journalism after joining the staff of campus newspaper The Daily Tar Heel, where she worked as a reporter and editor for three years. Toosi graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts from the UNC School of Media and Journalism. ^{[2] [7]}

While Nahal Toosi was in college she interned for five papers: Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Charlotte Observer, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Washington Bureau); and her hometown paper, The McKinney Courier-Gazette. ^[2]

Upon graduating from UNC, Toosi joined the staff of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel where she covered local affairs and higher education but also managed to embed with a Marine supply unit at the beginning of the Iraq War. In 2005 Toosi joined the Associated Press and was first posted to New York where she covered local affairs. After several months, Toosi joined the AP bureau in Islamabad, where she covered stories including the 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing and the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

After three-and-a-half years in Pakistan, Toosi rotated to the AP bureau in London, where she worked as an Editor on its Europe desk for the duration of her tenure. Toosi was hired by POLITICO in 2013, where she initially oversaw coverage of the 2014 midterms as Deputy Politics Editor before transitioning to foreign policy and national security reporting in 2015. ^{[2] [7] [8]}

In 2019, she was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting.

Her article, "The Genocide the U.S.

Didn't See Coming," is about the Rohingya and featured in Politico in March of 2018. Late in his presidency Barack Obama lifted sanctions against Myanmar despite warnings from several officials in the State Department that it would empower the Burmese military dictatorship and encourage repression within the state. Sadly, lifted sanctions resulted in tragedy for the Rohingya, leading Toosi to investigate whether the United States could have done things differently.

Nahal Toosi aligns politically with the left and has been critical of the Trump administration. In 2018, she spoke with Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly on a J Street sponsored panel discussion titled, "The Erosion of Diplomacy Under the Trump Administration." ^[11]

Toosi has been a strong advocate of Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a pro-Iran activist who was put in the State Department's Policy Planning Staff by the Obama administration. She was removed from her position in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal negotiations and Toosi felt it was a move motivated by conservatism and xenophobic values. She wrote an article for Politico about it called "Emails reveal conservative alarm over ‘Obama holdovers’ in Trump administration". ^[10]