my guest today, doctor mufaddal hamadeh, president of the syrian american medical society and the medicssends to syria are saving lives. he has been to idlib this year and seen for himself the carnage of war, and how hospitals and clinics which should give sanctuary have been bombed. after nine years of war, have we become indifferent to syria's pain? doctor mufaddal hamadeh, welcome to hardtalk, thanks for being with us. thank you very much, thanks for hosting me. you visited idlib in late january, how would you describe what you saw there? i'm originally from idlib. i was born in idlib in 1959 — i gave away my age quickly — and i know idlib very well because i visited idlib many times after that. idlib used to be a very small, quiet, boring town. i never used to like going there with my parents. i was very excited to visit idlib this time, contrary to my previous visits. but idlib is a different place today, totally different. it transformed to a very busy city. it is very crowded. most of the people who are in idlib now are not originally from idlib, they have been displaced from othe

with the un secretary-general office and team member states as former president of the syrian american medical society, the cofounder of the syria faith initiative and awarded the chicagoan of the year for his medical h work a fellow in the middlew east program a doctoral student and a prolific writer on all things syria. her research is primarily based on contacts and cultivated across the region also a research fellow for the think tank based in jerusalem as the consultant to the international crisis and the european institute of peace with a decade of experience to defend the rights of refugees palestinians ethnic and religious minorities so as an award-winning national correspondent from the washington bureau focusing on national security issues i spent most of the pastrt decade as a foreign correspondent to abc news. 's spending considerable time on the frontlines for the uprising in the middle east and reporting on the refugee crisis and among the first correspondent and cairo on the regime and rebel side and also to travel across ukraine. so on behalf of the institute welcome to all three of yo

he's also a former president of the syrian american medical society. cofounder of the american relief coalition in syria and cofounder of the syria face initiative. he was also awarded the chicago of the here in 2016, his medical work and that effort. as a fellow in the middle east program at the foreign policy reset institute, a doctoral student in political science at princeton university and i should add, a prolific writer on all things syria. primarily based on a large network of contacts, she's cultivated across syria as well and across the region. she's also fellow at the thinking a progressive israeli palestinian. she's worked at the consultant for international crisis group, if lentic crisis institute for peace among other places. she is a decade of expense working with human rights organization in the middle east and defending the rights of refugees, migrants, laborers, palestinians and religious minorities. alex, who with be here shortly, an award winning national correspondent based in cnn washington bureau, focusing on national security issu

zalul is also a president of the american medical society, sams, the co-founder of the syrian relief and the faith initiative. he was awarded the chicagoan of the year in 2016 for his medical work in besieged aleppo. elizabeth sircof is at the foreign policy research institute, a doctororal student at princeton, and a prolific writer on syria. her research is based on a large network of contacts across syria as well as field work. she's also a research fellow at the forum for regional thinking, a progressive think tank in jerusalem. she's worked as a consultant for many places. she has a decade of experience working with human rights organizations in the middle east, defending the rights of refugees, migrants, laborers, palestinians and ethnic and religious minorities. alex marquardt is an award winning national correspondent based in washington focusing on national security issues. he spent most of the past decade as a correspondent for abc news based in moscow, beirut and london. he spent time on the front lines in wars. he reported on the refugee and migrant crisis, covered the wav