The announcement that a spokeswoman for the Iran-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be participating in a meeting sponsored by an anti-ISIS group in Washington D.C. on Thursday has provoked outrage on social media.
Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, who was designated by the Treasury department since August 2011 for being one of three “principal defenders of the [Assad] regime’s activities,” is slated to address attendees via Skype. She will join guest speakers including Bassam al-Hussaini, the Iraqi government’s liaison for the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq.
The event, organized by the Global Alliance for Terminating al-Qaeda / ISIS, will be held at the National Press Club.
#Assad's regime wanted to hit Christian targets to spark sectarian tensions; Shaaban now lectures against terrorism https://t.co/dVlVKp78DO
— Kyle W. Orton (@KyleWOrton) June 1, 2016
Who's behind the genocide-whitewashers saying they're hosting sanctioned #Syria spox #Shaaban @PressClubDC June 2? https://t.co/ryF3sqTpkC
— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) June 1, 2016
It is a blackletter violation under EO 13573 for any US person to provide any good or service to Shabaan. No leeway. https://t.co/RCPlRIsE6o
— Omri Ceren (@cerenomri) June 1, 2016
If confirmed, this wld be the stronger revisionist gesture by #US #Obama admin on #Syria! A quasi political scandal! https://t.co/7AOHSRO1uo
— Joseph Bahout (@jobahout) June 1, 2016
Even if Buthaina Shaaban is video calling in from Damascus, why would @PressClubDC give terrorists a platform? https://t.co/kGD7JPpNLT
— S. Rifai (@THE_47th) June 1, 2016
Aside from the legal issues that may be associated with remotely hosting an individual designated by the Treasury, there are questions about the appropriateness of an Assad regime official attending an anti-ISIS event. The Assad regime has an established relationship with ISIS and helps keep the terror group afloat by buying its oil. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged last November that Assad “cut his own deal” with ISIS, while Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies observed in December that ISIS is “allied militarily and economically with Assad against other rebel groups.”
Shaaban told CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer in 2014 that “there is a huge campaign against the Syrian government for the last three years and the aim is not the Syrian government, the aim is the destruction of Syria, the destruction of the Syrian people for only the benefit of Israel.” When Blitzer asked her directly about photographs of systematic torture perpetrated by the Assad regime, which were smuggled out by a Syrian defector, she dismissed them as “a huge, huge lie.” A video of her comments is embedded below.
[Photo: CNN / YouTube ]