Mr. Ziadeh, Qatar and all the others

The New York Times story of a Syrian political opponent, Radwan Ziadeh, who was denied political asylum in the U.S. (June 24-25), says a lot about the evolution of the Syrian affair. Ziadeh was told that "he could not get political asylum in the United States because he organized a conference with Syrian opposition groups - even though the American government has supported members of the same groups in the Syrian civil war," the NYT reported. Once praised as "a prominent political opponent of Bashar al-Assad," and with fellowships from Harvard and Georgetown Universities, Ziadeh now is accused of "providing material support to Syrian groups that the government considers undesignated terrorist groups."

The label of an "undesignated terrorist organization" seems to have been invented after 9/11 to define "the organizations that have engaged in violence, whether or not the U.S. supported them" a lawyer at the advocacy group Human Rights First stated. The letter that Mr. Ziadeh received from the Citizenship and Immigration Services claims that "both the FSA and the Muslim Brotherhood met the definition of an undesignated terrorist organization." 

I cannot avoid comparing Mr. Ziadeh with Qatar. The only difference is the fact that poor Ziadeh is not rich enough to assume that he can challenge the sanctions against him. Nevertheless, Qatar seems to as confused as Mr. Ziadeh, about how things have turned upside down. Once praised as the rising star of the Middle East and encouraged by its Western allies to play an oversized political role in Middle Eastern affairs, Qatar has recently been accused of supporting radical/terrorist Islamist groups in Syria and elsewhere, not only by its hostile neighboring states but also by the U.S. 

Mr. Ziadeh...