The European Council on Foreign Relations

Meeting Assad’s interlocutor

Date: 13th July 2012  |  Author: Julien Barnes-Dacey,

Categories: Middle East and North Africa,

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this week nominated Ali Haidar, the new minister of national reconciliation, as his proposed interlocutor for talks with the opposition to be led by Kofi Annan. Haidar, head of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), a secular party, which (unlike another splinter faction) rejected incorporation into the Baath-led National Progressive Front over the past decade, took part in recent parliamentary elections as part of the opposition Popular Front for Change and Liberation coalition. 

While in Damascus recently - and before he was appointed minister in the new government - I met Haidar to discuss the developing situation. He laid out his thinking on how it might still be solved, thoughts which could prove instructive if any political dialogue ever sees the light of day under his stewardship.

Despite criticism thrown his way for his willingness to

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