Mouaz Moustafa: Lobbying Washington for Syria

When the Syrian revolution began in 2011, Mouaz Moustafa was a young Syrian-American political staffer in Washington with experience working on the Hill. He understood how American politics worked — the importance of personal relationships, the role of congressional staffers, the mechanics of building political will for foreign policy action.

He founded the Syrian Emergency Task Force as a Washington advocacy organization specifically designed to influence US policy on Syria. SETF was not a humanitarian organization and it was not an armed group — it was a lobbying and advocacy operation, working the machinery of American democracy on behalf of the Syrian opposition.

In 2013, Moustafa organized one of the most photographed events of the Syria crisis: Senator John McCain — the most hawkish voice in Congress for Syria intervention — visited Syrian rebel-held territory on the Turkey-Syria border. Moustafa was the fixer, the guide, the man who made it happen. The photos of McCain with rebel commanders ran around the world.

The visit was immediately controversial. Some of the commanders McCain was photographed with were later identified as having links to extremist groups. It became a case study in the dangers of Syria's fractured opposition — even a visit organized to generate political will for intervention ended up generating as much embarrassment as support.

But Moustafa kept working. He organized access for journalists. He organized congressional delegations. He lobbied, testified, briefed, and advocated. He was one of the most persistent voices in Washington arguing that the US had both the interest and the obligation to act in Syria.