A Top Aide to Assad Takes Syria’s Case to a U.S. Audience
WASHINGTON — When word circulated in Washington this week that Bouthaina Shaaban, who is a top adviser to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and who has been under sanction by the United States government, would appear two blocks from the White House at an antiterrorism news conference, the Obama administration reacted with alarm.
John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, called Dr. Shaaban a “propaganda mouthpiece” of the Assad government, which President Obama has said must go, and the Treasury noted that any transaction with a person designated on one of its blacklists was prohibited.
Dr. Shaaban did not arrive in person on Thursday, but she did appear via Skype video at the National Press Club, where she delivered a 20-minute speech followed by an extraordinary and at times contentious one-hour question-and-answer session with journalists and others.
Seated at a desk with a Syrian flag behind her and one pinned to the lapel of her blazer, Dr. Shaaban defended her government defiantly, assailed the Obama administration as being insufficiently committed to defeating the Islamic State and blamed Western news media for perpetuating what she called a “false narrative” about Syria and Mr. Assad’s government.
“We would love American officials to say the truth to their people and to the world about what’s happening in our country, because covering the truth is costing us blood,” Dr. Shaaban told an audience of several dozen in a nondescript meeting room at the National Press Club, where her image appeared on two large digital screens.
“The question is, why does the United States refuse to cooperate with Russia in fighting terrorism in Syria?”
Read More At: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/world/middleeast/syria-assad-bouthaina-shaaban.html?_r=0
From a few days ago, seems like a good article.
