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Randa Kassis
Syrian Opposition leader Randa Kassis
Leader	Syrian Opposition
Personal details
Born	(1970-10-08) 8 October 1970 (age 54) Damascus, Syria
Nationality	Syrian, French
Occupation	Politician and a leading figure of the Syrian opposition
Known for	Leading secular female figure

Randa Kassis (Arabic: رندة قسيس) is a Franco-Syrian politician and a leading secular figure of the Syrian opposition. She was the President of the Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition and the founder of the Movement of the Pluralistic Society. She is a close friend of Sergey Lavrov.

Biography

She was a member of the Syrian National Council until August 2012. Randa Kassis is the former president of the Coalition of Secular and Democratic Syrians and member of the Syrian National Council. The Coalition of Secular and Democratic Syrians, the nucleus of a secular and democratic Syrian opposition, was created by the union of a dozen Muslim, Christian, Arab and Kurdish parties, who called upon minorities in Syria to support the fight against the government of Bashar al-Assad. Kassis believes in the power of minorities and their role in society, especially in Kurds and highlighted in 2013 the importance of involving Kurds in any political process in Syria.

Kassis is no longer a member of the Syrian National Council, having been excluded due to her many declarations alerting the Syrian opposition about the rise of Muslim fundamentalists.

Kassis is also an anthropologist and journalist. She has also published a book called "Crypts of The Gods", which is a book on religions, their origins, and their ways of functioning. Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War on March 15, 2011, she has become a leading commentator on the Syrian Conflict and the wider complexities of the Arab Spring and the future of the Middle East region.

Randa Kassis initiated the Astana platform in 2015 after her request to the President of Kazakhstan to form a platform that could assemble moderate Syrian opponents. The first round of the Astana platform was moderated by Kazakh Ambassador Baghdad Amreyev and the opening session was chaired by the Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Erland Idrissov. The second round was moderated by Fabien Baussart, President of the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA).

Randa Kassis participated in the 2016 Geneva Peace Talks under the banner of the Moscow/Astana groups. She is Co-President with Qadri Jamil of the Syrian secular and democratic opposition delegation. She is criticized by other opposition members for her advocacy to a political transition in cooperation with Bashar al-Assad's regime and her support of the Russian intervention in the civil war.

In 2017, Kassis invited many members of the Syrian opposition, academics and constitutionalists with the help of French constitutionalist expert Xavier Latour, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Yasar Yakis and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy Giulio Terzi, in order to start drafting a new constitution for Syria.

On 30 January 2018 Randa Kassis, along with other members of the Astana platform, participated in the Syrian National Congress as President of the Astana platform. Kassis emphasized the importance of creating a constitutional committee in order to facilitate the peace process in Syria, which the UN and Astana troika – Russian, Iran and Turkey – later agreed to create.

October 2018, Kassis worked to include many political factions of the opposition to reach a road map to peace. The document was drawn up by representatives of the opposition invited to Rome by Sant'Egidio, an organisation closed to the Vatican.

Personal

Kassis is married to Fabien Baussart who founded the 2006 established think tank Center of Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA) and, since the early 1990s, is a close friend of Moscow and a staunch supporter of Vladimir Putin.

See also

• Mueller special counsel investigation

Bibliography

• Crypts of the Gods, Randa Kassis, Editions E- Kutub, 2013 (EN)
• Le Chaos Syrien, printemps arabes et minorités face à l'islamisme, Randa Kassis and Alexandre del Valle, Editions Dhow, 2014 (FR)
• Comprendre le chaos syrien, des révolutions arabes au jihad mondial, L'Artilleur, coll. Toucan essais, 2016 (FR)
• La Syrie et le Retour de la Russie, Editions des Syrtes, 2018 (FR)

See also

• Syrian Civil War
• Secularism in Syria
• Joumana Haddad

References

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4. Irish, John (2012-08-23). "Syrian dissident: Assad will fall only with Alawite help". Reuters. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
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6. Irish, John (2011-09-16). "France hails Syria council, develops contacts". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
7. "Entretien avec Randa Kassis, opposante et intellectuelle syrienne porte-parole de la Coalition des Forces Laïques et membre du Conseil National Syrien", France Soir, 11 November 2011.
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11. "Sectarian Jihad in Syria: Made in the USA?". Institute for Policy Studies. 2012-08-20. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
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27. "Сирийская оппозиция предлагает проект унитарного государства из 14 регионов". 2017-12-05.
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29. "Una road map per la ricostruzione della Siria presentata oggi a Sant'Egidio | NEWS | COMUNITÀ DI SANT'EGIDIO". www.santegidio.org (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-03-12.
30. Crowley, Michael (March 2017). "All of Trump's Russia Ties, in 7 Charts". Politico. Archived from the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
31. MEE staff (24 November 2016). "Trump's son met Moscow-backed Syrian 'opposition' politician: Donald Trump Jr met Randa Kassis before US election, strengthening expectations Trump administration will side with Russia in Syria". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
32. Sallon, Hélène; Vitkine, Benoît (19 March 2017). "Fabien Baussart, l'intermédiaire proche de Moscou qui a fait venir Donald Trump Jr à Paris: Compagnon d'une opposante syrienne adoubée par le Kremlin, l'homme d'affaires cultive ses réseaux russes depuis le début des années 1990" [Fabien Baussart, the Moscow-close intermediary who brought Donald Trump Jr to Paris: A companion of a Syrian opposition leader endorsed by the Kremlin, the businessman has been cultivating his Russian networks since the early 1990s.]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
33. Piel, Simon; Tilouine, Joan (4 October 2016). "L'affaire Squarcini embarrasse la Direction du renseignement intérieur" [The Squarcini affair embarrasses the Directorate of Internal Intelligence]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
34. "Speakers | Secular Conference London 2014". www.secularconference.com. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
35. Kassis, Randa (2013). Crypts of the gods. London: E-Kutub. p. 224. ISBN 978-1492880608.
36. "Articles en rapport avec : Le chaos syrien". Atlantico.fr. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
37. Kassis, Randa (2014). Le chaos Syrien. Paris: Editions Dhow. p. 320. ISBN 979-1093501031.
38. Kassis, Randa (June 8, 2016). COMPRENDRE LE CHAOS SYRIEN DES RÉVOLUTIONS ARABES AU JIHAD MONDIAL (TOUC.ESSAIS ed.). France: L'artilleur. p. 438. ISBN 9782810007318.
39. Randa., Kassis (2018). La Syrie et le retour de la Russie. Genève. ISBN 978-2940523634. OCLC 1027055736.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Official Site

• 21st-century Syrian politicians
• Living people
• People of the Syrian civil war
• 1970 births
• 21st-century Syrian women politicians
• Syrian critics of religions
• 20th-century Syrian politicians