Ex-Syria government spokesman takes new stab at diplomacy
GENEVA — Jihad al-Makdissi was once the mouthpiece for the Syrian government. A familiar face at the front lines of spin, he defended the heavy-handed approach of state security and military forces as Arab Spring-inspired protests swept the nation and then degenerated into a horrific civil war.
Now, the former government operative and career diplomat is in his element in Geneva, where he is representing one of the opposition groupings participating in United Nations-sponsored peace talks. “Evolution instead of revolution” should be the goal in Syria, Makdissi says.
It is the kind of language that other dissidents view as soft on the fate of President Bashar Assad, one of the issues that has brought past talks to a halt and isn’t even under discussion in the latest round of U.N.-mediated talks in Switzerland.
Makdissi heads the Cairo platform opposition in Geneva, one of three groups invited by the United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, in a bid to revive a moribund diplomatic process. Formed in Egypt in 2015, the Cairo platform casts itself as a centrist alternative to the Western, Saudi and Turkey-backed opposition.