Natolin Ambassadorial Talk: "The Syrian Popular Revolt: from a dream to a nightmare" by Dr Anis NACROUR

The Syrian civil war will soon enter into its fourth year with a death toll of more than 130.000 people and more than 4 million internally displaced people. The rapidly deteriorating situation in Syria represents the biggest humanitarian crisis that the international community has witnessed in a generation. The unwillingness of the domestic political forces in Syria to reconcile, in conjunction with the failure of the international community to bring an end to the conflict, have further exacerbated the crisis and the war. Moreover, the different roles, perceptions and interests of actors involved have complicated things on the ground.

This Natolin Neighbourhood Ambassadorial Talk on the occasion of the Natolin Neighbourhood Days, touched upon the various repercussions of the war in Syria and also analyzed the EU’s role and contribution as regards humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution.

Dr Anis NACROUR, Acting Head of Delegation of the EU to Syria, spoke in a private capacity as a College of Europe's alumni and as an expert on the region and not as a representative of either the French government or the EU. The talk was conducted under the Chatham House Rules.

This event was free of charge and open to the public, but due to limited space, registration was required by sending an email to maja.olszewska [at] coleurope.eu, by Tuesday, 1 April 2014.

About the speaker:

Dr Anis NACROUR is a French diplomat and currently Acting Head of Delegation of the EU to Syria. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and has held senior diplomatic posts in Algeria, Bahrain, the United Kingdom, Israel, Qatar, the US and Yemen. He has been seconded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs and worked as political and security adviser to Mr Tony BLAIR on the Middle East Peace Process (2007-10) as well as in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Service (1996-97).