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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241217T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241217T193000
DTSTAMP:20260521T080553
CREATED:20241216T192816Z
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SUMMARY:The Fall of Assad and the Future of Syria
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a panel discussion event regarding the latest developments in Syria after the ousting of Assad and what to expect next. \n  \nSpeakers:\nDr. Tarek Abou Ghazala\, American Coalition for Syria\nRadwan Ziadeh\, Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies\nRaghid Okla\, Syrian-American Activist\nBassam Barabandi\, People Demand Change \n  \nModerator:\nKhaled Saffuri\, National Interest Foundation \n  \nDisclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. You will receive a confirmation email if you have been successfully added to our event attendee list upon registration. Those who do not receive a confirmation email will not be admitted. Also\, please note that when registering for any of our events\, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry to those who fail to do so. \n  \n*A light dinner will be served at the event. \n  \nParking: Free parking will be available around the building. We will inform building management about the event and they will not tow. If you wish to take the metro\, it is a 7-minute walk from both the Tysons and Greensboro stations. \n  \nAbout our Speakers: \nDr. Tarek Abou Ghazala is an Interventional Cardiologist practicing in Northern Virginia. He established the Virginia Cardiovascular Group and served as the President of the Medical Society of Northern Virginia and the Chairman of Medicine and Director of Cardiovascular Services then elected Chief of Staff at Stonesprings Hospital in Aldie Virginia. He was then elected Director at the Medical Society of Virginia in 2019. Dr. Abou Ghazala is an active political advocate of the Syrian uprising\, currently serving as the President of Kayla’s List PAC\, a Political Action Committee aiming to promote congressional candidates that support freedom\, social & economic justice\, and dignity for people across the globe. Previously\, Dr. Abou Ghazala co-founded the American Coalition for Syria\, encompassing 10 organisations advocating for freedom and democracy for the Syrian people. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Syrian American Medical Society\, Washington DC Chapter\, and is a signatory to the 10 Principles for Freedom and Democracy for Syria\, put forth by active Syrian Americans. He appeared on many media outlets in person and by writing. Dr. Abou Ghazala graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Damascus University in 1991. He later continued his training in the United States completing his residency in Internal Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland\, Ohio and his fellowship in Cardiordivascular Diseases at the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics in Columbia\, Missouri. \n  \nRadwan Ziadeh is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC\, where he deals chiefly with issues pertaining to Syria. He has been documenting the ongoing human rights violations since the onset of the Syrian crisis and has testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the US Congress. He served as a visiting fellow and scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University\, the Institute for Middle East Studies of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University\, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University\, the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University\, Chatham House\, the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University\, and the United States Institute of Peace. He was also a Prins Global Fellow at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University and a Reagan–Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. Dr. Ziadeh is the author of more than 20 books in English and Arabic including Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services\, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East (2010)\, and Syria’s Role in a Changing Middle East: The Syrian-Israeli Peace Talks (2016). He holds a DDS in Dentistry from Damascus University\, a Diploma in International Human Rights Law from American University\, an MA in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown University\, and a Diploma in Peace Negotiations and Conflict Studies from the University of Cyprus. Ziadeh is also the founder and director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria (www.dchrs.org); and co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington\, D.C. (www.scpss.org). \n  \nRaghid Okla is a Syrian-American activist and opinion’s columnist for various media outlets. \n  \nBassam Barabandi is Co-Founder of People Demand Change and was a Non-Resident Fellow at the Newlines Institute. Born in Damascus City with familial ties to Deir Azzour Province\, Syria\, Bassam Barabandi worked in the diplomatic civil service of the Syrian Government for 14 years before leaving the Syrian Embassy in Washington DC in the summer of 2013 and co-founding People Demand Change Inc. Previously as a diplomat\, Mr. Barabandi had numerous postings\, including being the first secretary at the Embassy of Syria in Washington DC\, the head of political affairs at the Syrian Embassy in Beijing\, China\, and a post at the Syrian Government’s UN mission in New York City. Through his time as a diplomat\, Mr. Barabandi also worked with the World Bank\, the US Treasury Department and as a liaison to the US Congress. Since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011\, Mr. Barabandi was instrumental in providing unhindered access to consular services for all Syrians regardless of political or ideological affiliation\, including access to many Syrians who had no other avenue through which to acquire passport extensions and other necessary legal documents. Mr. Barabandi has a BA in political science and public administration from the American University of Beirut and speaks fluent Arabic and English. Since co-founding PDC\, Mr. Barabandi has written extensively on the Syrian conflict and has been published in Foreign affairs\, Foreign policy\, and was qouted by all main newspaper and reserch on Syria & has conducted guest interviews to provide his analysis for BBC\, Al-Jazeera\, Al-Arabiya\, Sky News\, France24 and other media outlets. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF)\, a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with strategic and public affairs consulting services\, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees\, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise\, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN\, CBS\, and BBC\, and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/the-fall-of-assad-and-the-future-of-syria/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250123T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250123T123000
DTSTAMP:20260521T080553
CREATED:20250117T212519Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250122T145224Z
UID:11638-1737630000-1737635400@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Gaza Ceasefire Deal and the Prospects of Success
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a Zoom event regarding the Gaza ceasefire agreement that was recently reached and the prospects of successful implementation moving forward. \n  \nSpeakers:\nDr. Annelle Sheline\, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft\nKhaled Elgindy\, Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies\nSam Husseini\, Independent Journalist \n  \nModerator:\nKhaled Saffuri\, National Interest Foundation \n  \nDisclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. You will receive a confirmation email if you have been successfully added to our event attendee list upon registration. Those who do not receive a confirmation email will not be admitted. Also\, please note that when registering for any of our events\, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry to those who fail to do so. \n  \nAbout our Speakers: \nDr. Annelle Sheline is a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. She previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy\, Human Rights\, and Labor’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs (DRL/NEA)\, before resigning in March 2024 in protest over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. She is a senior non-resident fellow at the Arab Center of Washington DC and a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. She holds a PhD in political science from George Washington University. She has written for Foreign Affairs\, The Washington Post\, The Nation\, Foreign Policy\, and The New Republic\, and has appeared on the BBC\, CNN\, CBS\, and Al Jazeera. \n  \nKhaled Elgindy is a Middle East analyst and author as well as an adjunct professor in Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He is the author of the 2019 book\, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians\, from Balfour to Trump (Brookings Institution Press). Elgindy previously served as director of the Middle East Institute’s Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs from Jan. 2020 until Jan. 2025. From 2010 through 2018\, he served as a resident scholar in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Prior to arriving at Brookings\, he served as an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009\, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007-08. \n  \nSam Husseini is an independent journalist now writing at husseini.substack.com. Since October 2023\, his work has focused on Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza\, especially highlighting the possibility of a country invoking the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice\, which South Africa did on December 29\, 2023\, leading to oral arguments. In addition to Palestine\, his work has focused on Iraq (in particular the draconian sanctions during the 1990s and falsifications about WMDs used as a pretext for the 2003 invasion)\, international law\, US government refusing to acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal\, Covid origins\, political and media disinformation\, and issues of free speech. He has scrutinized and questioned officials\, most recently at the State Department. His questioning of a Saudi official during the Arab uprisings in 2011 led to him being suspended from the Press Club (later overturned by the ethics committee). He is also senior analyst at the Institute for Public Accuracy\, and the founder of VotePact\, which advocates people from the left and right voting in pairs against the establishment duopoly. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF)\, a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with strategic and public affairs consulting services\, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees\, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise\, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN\, CBS\, and BBC\, and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/gaza-ceasefire-deal-and-the-prospects-of-success/
LOCATION:Zoom Meeting
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1.23.25-NIF-Event-Picture-e1737149103762.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251106T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251106T133000
DTSTAMP:20260521T080553
CREATED:20251031T160952Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251103T221116Z
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SUMMARY:Sudan War and Foreign Meddling
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend an event regarding the latest developments surrounding the war in Sudan and the foreign meddling in the conflict. \n  \nSpeakers:\nH.E. Mohamed Abdalla Idris\, Ambassador of Sudan to the United States\nH.E. Dr. Khidir Haroun Ahmed\, Former Ambassador of Sudan to the United States and Associate Professor of Political Science at the International University of Africa\nDr. Mohamed Elsanousi\, Executive Director at the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers\nImam Mohamed Magid\, Executive Imam at All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center \n  \nModerator:\nKhaled Saffuri\, President at the National Interest Foundation \n  \nDisclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. You will receive a confirmation email if you have been successfully added to our event attendee list upon registration. Those who do not receive a confirmation email will not be admitted. Also\, please note that when registering for any of our events\, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry to those who fail to do so. \n  \nAbout our Speakers: \nH.E. Mohamed Abdalla Idris is the current Ambassador of Sudan to the United States. As a seasoned diplomat\, he brings a sophisticated understanding of international relations\, particularly in global health cooperation and humanitarian coordination. H.E. Ambassador Idris has played a pivotal role in representing Sudan’s national interests in Washington and beyond\, often working to build cross-border partnerships for health and development. He has been instrumental in facilitating collaborations with global institutions\, NGOs\, and foreign governments to tackle infectious disease\, bolster healthcare infrastructure\, and equip Sudan for future public health challenges. Fluent in multiple languages and with a background that includes both international diplomacy and public service\, H.E. Ambassador Idris combines strategic acumen with a humanitarian orientation. His leadership exemplifies how diplomacy and global health advocacy can work together to support resilient and equitable outcomes in developing nations. \n  \nH.E. Dr. Khidir Haroun Ahmed is the Former Ambassador of Sudan to the United States. He currently works as an Associate Professor of Political Science at the International University of Africa. Previously\, Dr. Ahmed also served as Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Sudan to the Republic of India between 2009 and 2011\, as Non-resident Ambassador to Nepal\, Sri Lanka\, and the Maldives between 2009 and 2012\, and as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sudan to Japan between 1999 and 2001\, among other roles. He has published several books including The Urban Dwellers – a novel in Arabic\, Nostalgic Messages – an autobiography\, and Visions on Thoughts\, Culture and Literature. He has also published research in areas such as the story of secession of South Sudan\, the impact of globalization on Arabic culture\, and religious extremism. \n  \nDr. Mohamed Elsanousi is the Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers\, a global coalition that connects grassroots peacebuilders with international stakeholders to strengthen collective efforts toward sustainable peace. He also currently serves as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Previously\, Dr. Elsanousi was the Director of Interfaith and Government Relations at the Islamic Society of North America. He served on the U.S. Department of State’s Working Group on Religion and Foreign Policy\, where he contributed key recommendations to the Secretary of State and the Federal Advisory Commission to enhance collaboration between the U.S. government\, civil society\, and religious actors. He also played a leading role in developing the standards and protocols for protecting the rights of Christian\, Jewish\, and other religious minorities in Muslim-majority contexts—an effort that culminated in the landmark Marrakech Declaration\, one of the most recognized Islamic theological documents in support of religious freedom. Dr. Elsanousi is the founder of Faiths4Vaccines\, a national campaign mobilizing faith leaders and communities to support the Biden Administration’s goals of equitable vaccine distribution and combating vaccine hesitancy. He is a founding executive committee member of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign\, and was recently appointed to the UN Security Council’s Nongovernmental Organization Working Group. He also co-chairs the Multifaith Advisory Council to the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development. In addition to these roles\, Dr. Elsanousi serves on the boards of several interfaith and civic organizations\, including the Religious Leadership and Civic Engagement Project at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service\, the Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Jewish Theological Seminary\, and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law\, a master’s in law\, and a doctorate in law and society from Indiana University’s School of Law. \n  \nImam Mohamed Magid is the Executive Imam at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center. He has dedicated over three decades to serving the Muslim community with unwavering commitment\, compassion\, and vision. Originally from Sudan\, Imam Magid comes from a distinguished lineage of Islamic scholarship. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his leadership in promoting human rights\, interfaith understanding\, and community development. As the Resident Scholar of the ADAMS Center\, Imam Magid plays a vital role in guiding the community through education\, spiritual growth\, and advocacy. His work has empowered individuals and families across generations\, and his efforts to foster inclusivity and unity have earned him deep respect across diverse communities. In addition to his community leadership\, Imam Magid is an accomplished author and public speaker. His lifelong dedication to service reflects an impeccable record of addressing the evolving needs of the Muslim community while upholding the timeless values of faith\, justice\, and compassion. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF)\, a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with strategic and public affairs consulting services\, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees\, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise\, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN\, CBS\, and BBC\, and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/sudan-war-and-foreign-meddling/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/11.6.25-NIF-Event-Image-e1761926981691.jpg
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