News and Commentary: Brussels Conference and Assad’s Associations

Published by Syria Channel:
An investigative media report titled: “Linked to ‘Asma al-Assad’.. Local Associations Participate in the Brussels Conference for Funding.”
The report states that “Most charitable associations in Damascus and Latakia operate under the ‘Syrian Trust for Development’, which is managed by Asma al-Assad. These associations align with the internal policies of the Syrian regime and implement its plans concerning developmental and charitable work.

During the international conferences in which representatives of these associations participate, they claim that these are independent civil society organizations with no ties to the Syrian regime. They also assert that they strive to achieve their vision in alignment with the goals of the United Nations and their funding organizations, independent of the Syrian regime’s agendas.”

Comment by the Syrian Future Movement (SFM):

1. We support every effort and civil struggle across the entire Syrian map, in accordance with our vision and approach that promotes civil discourse above all else.
2. As the Syrian Future Movement is a Syrian civil movement with licensed relief offices, we had the opportunity to attend the last Brussels conference. We were officially contacted and communicated with to participate, and we presented a paper before the conference that outlined our vision and desire to support our educational, relief, and community activities inside Syria, and our presence in several other civil fields.
3. We observed a secretive presence of many organizations affiliated with the Syrian regime, which Asma met with later during the past month of Ramadan. We currently refrain from naming them.
4. We did not pursue attendance at the Brussels conference to avoid conflating active and concerned Syrian civil society organizations with those built under the watchful eyes of Assad’s intelligence agencies, which are concerned with marketing and supporting them through the exploitation of grains, medicine, and water, in addition to trying to merge various civil society organizations to extend the regime’s reach and oversight over them.
5. We tried to publish our vision and stance both implicitly and explicitly, and we were the first to warn both secretly and publicly, especially in an article by Dr. Zaher Baadarani, President of the Syrian Future Movement, dated (….), titled “The Eighth Brussels Conference: Hopes and Ambitions.”
   Link to the article:
   https://sfuturem.org/m-r-01-04-24/.