Berlin: Ribal Al-Assad discusses plans to bring peaceful transitional democratic change in Syria with former German Army Chief and leading CDU politician

Ribal Al-Assad, the Director of the ODFS, had a meeting with the former Chief of the German Army, Lieutenant General (retired) Jörg Schönbohm in Berlin. They had a wide ranging discussion on the prospects of democratic reform in Syria and the Middle East.

Lieutenant General (retired) Jörg Schönbohm was the first commander of the Bundeswehr Eastern Command in 1990, which supervised the absorption of the East German National People's Army into the Federal German armed forces. Later he became the Chief of the German Army, then Under Secretary for Security policy in the Federal Ministry of Defence and then the CDU Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister for the state of Brandenburg.

Ribal said, "I was delighted and honoured to meet General Schönbohm, who is an iconic figure in Germany and is living history. We had an excellent discussion on bringing peaceful transitional democratic change in Syria and challenging extremism in the Middle East. I look forward to working with him on these issues in the future."