From the website of Russia Today, 13 December:
With international rhetoric hardening against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, peace activist Dr Maher Salloum tells RT the West is not really seeking a dialogue with the Syrian regime.
…The world community is not doing enough to ensure a dialogue between Damascus and its opponents, believes Dr Maher Salloum, the ambassador for the Universal Peace Federation.
“It seems that the West has been concentrating on the position that there can be no dialogue with such a president as Bashar Assad. I believe there is still a gap between the Syrian regime and its opponents within and outside the country,” he told RT.
A comment below the story makes a pertinent point:
I am very interested in Maher Salloum’s full qualifications. I am sure he is qualified but the only qualification presented here is that he is an Ambassador of the Universal Peace Federation.(UPF)
… If, as the report reflects, Maher Salloum’s primary qualification is the blessing of Sun Myung Moon as representative of the UPF, the viewers and readers should be told what the UPF is.
Indeed. The UPF is a subject I’ve blogged on a number of times, both here and on my spin-off blog (see link at top of page)
Salloum has also made a number of appearances on Iran’s Press TV, which on several occasions has noted his “Ambassador for Peace” title. Press TV has also described him variously as “Professor of International Relations from the Lebanese International University” and as a “Political Analyst”; however, according to his Facebook page (as Mack Salloum) he’s recently become Associate Professor of Marketing and Management at the Islamic University of Lebanon.
Salloum is strong advocate of the Palestinian cause, and he regards US actions in the Middle East as being at the behest of Israel:
Because of the results of the invasions and the attacks by the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan and all the areas they have been involved in as an international army right now. I mean the Israeli army has been given weapons and intelligence support technically, militarily, financially, and this has been used as an American intellectual property. It has been used against the Lebanese and other Arabs such as the Palestinians and even the Iraqis. So the real goal here is to disrupt the Arab world through the US administration whether it is Obama or anyone else. But the real message is to benefit Israel’s interests in the area.
The real enemy of the Arab world is Israel. It is not the US. The US is acting as a tool in order to deliver the message by Israel.
That doesn’t seem quite on-message with the UPF’s “Middle East Peace Initiative“.
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