Press Conference USA

AMBASSADOR FREDERIC HOF, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL Host Carol Castiel and VOA broadcaster Pamela Dockins speak with Ambassador Frederic Hof, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. Ambassador Hof, who was the Obama administration’s special advisor for the Syrian transition in 2012, recommends that the United States and its allies support the mainstream Syrian opposition in establishing a legitimate functioning government on liberated Syrian soil. He explains that this will require a “paradigm shift” on the part of the US government but says the consequences of not doing so might mean even greater sectarian chaos and a failed state in the heart of the volatile Middle East.