Jihad Makdissi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, in July 2012. He left his post later that year.Reuters
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — For years, Jihad Makdissi was the urbane, outward-looking face of the Syrian government, proclaiming its views in perfect English as the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman. Then, about a year ago, he resigned and fled here, withdrawing his support from President Bashar al-Assad without throwing it to the opposition, quietly waiting, he said, for his chance to be of use.
Now, with long-awaited but shaky peace talks set to begin in Switzerland on Wednesday, Mr. Makdissi has resurfaced, a rare high-profile dissenter who is seeking to position himself as a voice for the many Syrians who remain on the sidelines, skeptical of the armed uprising but still wanting deep change in their country.
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A feeling that he “could no longer change anything,” he said, drove him from his job nearly two years into a revolution that had evolved, amid a brutal government crackdown, from a largely peaceful movement against Mr. Assad into an armed rebellion that increasingly drew in foreign jihadists.
Over several hours of interviews in Dubai coffee shops recently, Mr. Makdissi said he spoke for a broad center of Syrians that includes many Christians like himself, a center that fears extremism within the rebellion and wishes the revolt had remained a peaceful one but still believes the rebellion was rooted in valid political demands.
“The aspirations of the Syrian street are totally legitimate,” he said.
Mr. Makdissi’s message passes for optimism these days in a Syria so divided that there is no consensus on the goal of the coming talks or whether they will even take place. Even modest glimmerings of a political solution, he said, could help deflate the dangerous sectarianism of a conflict whose political roots, he said, could still be resolved through compromise.
“People today are angry and furious because of their losses and the blood,” said Mr. Makdissi, whose father named him after a close Muslim friend. “Let’s not judge them at this historic moment. Once you stop the blood with a better social contract, things will begin to calm down. We have never faked our coexistence — this is us.”
He said he hoped Syrians could reach a solution, through the internationally sponsored talks in Geneva, involving a deeply restructured and truly accountable government with safety for all members of Syria’s “mosaic.” Asked whether Mr. Assad should have a role, he said, carefully, “Change cannot be achieved if we link the destiny of Syria to one person.”
He said he backed the official Geneva plan for a transitional body empowered to reshape the government, with members approved by both sides. That excludes “controversial figures,” he said, whether they “blessed beheadings” by jihadis or “spearheaded the intelligence services.” Then, he said, Syrians should choose a new parliament and president in elections open to any candidate.
Obliquely but unmistakably, Mr. Makdissi made it clear that he wanted to counter, in a way acceptable to fence-sitters and critics of the armed opposition, Mr. Assad’s contention that the primary challenge to his rule comes not from domestic dissent but from foreign-inspired terrorist groups that he is fighting on behalf of the world. The idea that Mr. Assad should stay in place to battle jihadis has gained some traction in the West.
Mr. Makdissi said he believes most Syrian Christians, as well as most Syrians, “believed in change and that this change is inevitable in Syria.” But, he said, “they wanted evolution instead of armed revolution.”
Now, he said, facing the “real threat” of jihadis, most Christians “chose to be among the silent majority of Syrians, and that is so different from taking any side.”
The government has emphasized, particularly to the West, what it portrays as near-unanimous support from Christians, claiming to protect them, other minorities and the Sunni majority from Islamist extremists. (Mr. Assad himself is part of a minority, the Muslim Alawite sect.) But Mr. Makdissi said Christians did not need singling out and, like all Syrians, could be best protected by a strong constitution enforced by good governance.
“When Syria is O.K., Syrian Christians will be O.K.,” he said. “This should be our focus.”
Mr. Makdissi, 39, is one of many former and current civil servants and technocrats newly reaching out to one another and to international mediators to restructure and stabilize their wounded country.
Asked if he saw himself joining a transitional governing body — whose formation still seems remote — he said he was not seeking a political position but a way to heal the country’s rifts.
“I am positioning myself in a centrist place where I feel comfortable belonging to reasonable people, not extremists,” he said. “So if there is room to serve the country in this area, I would do it.”
Mr. Makdissi, a tall, broad-shouldered father of two, was long a fixture on Syrian state television, widely regarded as a competent technocrat. His departure in December 2012 was a blow to a government that seeks to portray itself as a responsible, sophisticated international player.
“The polarization became lethal,” said Mr. Makdissi, whom some government opponents criticize for keeping his privileged post as Syrians died. He added: “A diplomat is not a lawyer. The lawyer can take one case and profit out of it; the diplomat can only fight for a whole country. The diplomat inside of me won over the lawyer.”
He said he would have stayed in Syria if he had been sure his resignation would not endanger his family.
Mr. Makdissi said the government aimed to drag out the diplomatic process, “betting on the change of mood in the Western sphere to get a better political deal.” But playing for time, he suggested, can be read as much a sign of weakness as of strength.
“Everybody is tired,” he said. “Everybody realizes that he is not able to win over and wipe out the other party.”
He said Iran should be invited to the talks to test its avowed commitment to a political solution. Being there, he said, would force Iran to temper its behavior as a spoiler, an effect he said he hoped participation in the talks would have on Saudi Arabia, a backer of the rebels. Eventually, he said, the government must engage in Geneva’s path to compromise or appear to be taking Syrian sacrifices lightly, ignoring chances to end the killing.
That, he said, would anger Syria’s silent majority, including “reasonable” government supporters. “If both sides don’t take this seriously,” he said, “they won’t be silent anymore.”
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