Aref Dalila (Arabic: عارف دليلة) (born 1942[1]) is a Syrian economist and former Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Damascus University.

[6] In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush named Dalila in a speech as a political prisoner unfairly jailed by Syria.

[9] President Assad responded that the complaints amounted to foreign interference in Syrian domestic affairs.

[7] When the Syrian Revolution began in 2011 as a part of the Arab Spring movement, Dalila was active in trying to calm sectarian tensions in his home city of Latakia.

In 2012, he criticized the Syrian National Council established by exiled opponents, stating that the situation in Syria has continued to decline since its formation: "Instead of solving the problem, it made it more complicated".