Tuesday evening, a woman claiming to be Lamia Shakkour, the Syrian ambassador to France, called into television station France24 to announce her resignation from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime: “I can no longer continue to support the cycle of extreme violence against unarmed civilians. I can no longer ignore all the strong men, women and children who have died.”
But less than a half-hour later, Syrian state television and Al Arabiya television both played telephone denials from Shakkour, who said that France24 had been pranked. The Times reported that Shakkour later appeared another French news channel to deny that she had resigned: “It was unclear whether Ms. Shakkour had resigned, been impersonated, or resigned and then changed her mind.”
Syrian Envoy Resigns on TV, or Perhaps It Was Impostor [NYT]
This post has been updated with additional information.
