Syria rebels suspicious over defector’s motives

Quoted by Associated Press

Ammar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based Syrian dissident, said that while Tlass could provide valuable information, the opposition on the ground will not accept him as a leader. After so many months of “confrontations and sacrifice,” he said, “legitimate leaders of the transitional period can only rise from the ranks of the internal revolutionary movement.”

 

After Assad: What’s Next for the Future of Syria?

Quoted in the Time:

If Syria is allowed to fracture, each ethnic group hunkering down, says Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled Syria opposition leader in Washington, “it won’t be easy to put humpty dumpty back together again. It would take decades of instability and violence to sort itself out. And that is what we’re most worried about.”

Syria Rebels’ Gains in Damascus Surprise Even Them

Quoted by Los Angeles Times Staff

Echoing the sentiments of the more cautious activists and observers, Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S. based-Syrian human rights activist and fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in one of his daily roundup emails last week, “Something is definitely looming in Syria, but it’s not end game. It’s more like the end of Round One.

The Pristina-Damascus Connection

Cited by Seyward Darby, Transitions Online

PRISTINA | A few weeks ago, three Syrian opposition activists arrived in this small Balkan capital for a short visit. The trio stayed in a hotel downtown – “nothing fancy,” according to one of the activists – and met with various local dignitaries, including Kosovo’s foreign minister, advisers to the president, and the mayor of Pristina. Continue reading “The Pristina-Damascus Connection”