Authorities Forbid Syrians from Meeting US Officials or US-Based Opposition

Radio Sawa is reporting that Syrian authorities have banned meetings by unauthorized Syrians with American officials. This is an attempt to stop the growing coordination between the opposition inside Syria with the exile groups as well as to hinder their growing relationships with US offialdom. This news comes from Ammar al-Qaroubi, the spokesman of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, who was recently detained for several days after his return from Paris, where he participated in the meeting organized by the Aspen Institute.

وجهت السلطات السورية رسائل إلى كافة نشطاء حقوق الانسان والمعارضين السوريين مفادها أن الاتصال بالولايات المتحدة يعد خطاً أحمر.
أعلن ذلك عمّار القربي المتحدث باسم المنظمة العربية لحقوق الانسان في سوريا عقب إطلاق السلطات السورية سراحه الاربعاء الماضي بعد مشاركته في إجتماعين للمعارضة السورية في واشنطن وباريس:

Also read Amarji on the March 9 and 10 meeting of Ghadry and Somer al-Asad, Rifaat's son. He writes:

Another meeting was taking place organized by the Aspen Institute and attended by other, if not downright rival, opposition figures [to Khaddam], including Farid Ghadri, Sumer al-Assad (son of the infamous Rifa’at al-Assad – the perennial contender to the presidential throne and uncle of the current President) and a number of internal opposition figures, who seemed to have been dismayed by the presence of Sumer al-Assad and forced his withdrawal from the meeting. The internal opposition figures seem to have been angered by the lack of transparency by the organizers of the meeting who refused to divulge beforehand the names of the external opposition figures who will be attending.

The RPS describes the Aspen meeting as follows:

RPS participated in an event in Paris on March 9 and 10 hosted by Aspen institute in which Aspen invited Obeida Nahas, a Muslim Brotherhood member to participate and express his opinion. During the two day meeting, not one word was uttered by Nahas as to the meeting in Brussels a week later or to invite any other of the participants to enlarge the circle as if the intent was to exclude rather than include. For a Muslim Brotherhood follower to exclude other people, when he was included amongst many others in other meetings, is a very dangerous matter. It shows exactly why the Muslim Brotherhood cannot be trusted. It is not what you say, it is what you do.