Bassma Kodmani

Kodmani led the Governance and International Cooperation program for the Middle East and North Africa at the Ford Foundation.

[3] Bassma Kodmani held a doctorate degree of political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

[6] Bassma Kodmani studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris where she obtained a PhD degree in Political Science.

[7] Because of her feeling of belonging to the Arab world, she dismissed a career in French foreign service and decided to focus on the study of international relations.

She worked at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI) in Paris where she set up and directed the Middle East Program from 1981 to 1998.

"[8] She spent seven years living in Egypt where she led the Governance and International Cooperation program for the Middle East and North Africa at the Ford Foundation.

She regularly wrote articles welcoming the protesters' call for democracy in Syria and denouncing "the fierce repression of Bashar al-Assad and its use of a sectarian strategy to undermine the uprising".

[18][19] In July 2011, Bassma Kodmani wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times arguing that the key to the success of the Syrian revolt lies in the siding of the Alawi population as whole (and not the army) with the revolution.

She suggested that the opposition should offer guarantees of protection to the Alawi community as a way to encourage them to “withdraw its support” to the Assad government.

[21] Bassma Kodmani was the spokesperson of the Syrian National Council, a political umbrella organization uniting diverse opposition groups inside and outside Syria.

[1] In its mission statement, the Syrian National Council presents itself as a “political umbrella organization” that “seeks to represent the Syrian revolution politically embody its aspirations in toppling the regime; achieve democratic change; and build a modern, democratic, and civil state.” It hopes to unite the efforts of the opposition and the revolutionary committees in toppling the Assad regime and ensuring a transition of Syria towards democracy.

With China and Russia's veto impeding a United Nations Security Council resolution, the international intervention scenario is unlikely to unfold.

[27] In February 2012, a controversy erupted over Bassma Kodmani's participation in a French televised program featuring Israeli writers back in 2008.

[28] In July 2013, she signed an open letter to French President François Hollande, calling for the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria.