Cited by Electron Libre, France24
Numerous activists have been voicing their distress and dismay online. Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled anti-Assad activist, has criticized the UN Observer mission on his blog, calling it a total failure, bearing in mind the level of violence across Syria over the past few days.
Quoted by Patrick Martin, The Globe and Mail
“The fact that UN monitors ended up confirming the massacre should come as a further proof of the accuracy of reports and videos produced by field activists,” said an impatient Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian activist and fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“If we don’t draw the line at Houla, larger massacres will follow,” he warned, “and the fragmentation of Syria will become unstoppable, with regional and global consequences.”
Event Summary
In light of the ongoing crisis in Syria, three experts discussed the events on the ground there, U.S. policy options for the country, the role of Iran in the crisis, and what actions should be taken by the U.S. and international community. On May 9, the Middle East Program hosted a meeting on “What to Do About Syria?” with Ammar Abdulhamid, Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Steven Heydemann, Senior Advisor for Middle East Initiatives at the U.S. Institute of Peace; and Barbara Slavin, Washington Correspondent for Al-Monitor and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Haleh Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, moderated the event. Continue reading “What to Do About Syria?”
Quoted by Nicholas Blanford, The Christian Science Monitor
“The only Al Qaeda cells that operate in Syria are those manipulated by Assad’s security apparatuses,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a US-based Syrian opposition activist in an online newsletter emailed today. “The suicide bombings are directly staged or facilitated by them. Issues pertaining to the timing and the real beneficiaries, and everything we know about the Assads’ involvement in terror networks, all point in this direction.”
Mr. Abdulhamid’s post carried a YouTube link that quotes Walid Muallem, Syria’s foreign minister, telling a news conference in Damascus in December that suicide bombings would not be an “embarrassment” for the government but would bestow “credibility” upon its claim that it is under threat from Islamist militants.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 