Are you concerned, like many observers of foreign affairs, about Tulsi Gabbard’s opinions about Syria’s ex-dictator, Bashar al-Assad? If so, consider that for much of the past fourteen years, the U.S. diplomatic presence in Syria has been delegated to a Central European diplomat who largely shares such beliefs: the former Czech ambassador to Damascus, Eva Filipi.

Following the onset of Syria’s civil war in 2011, the United States alongside numerous other countries closed their embassies, opting to instead provide consular and other services through their diplomatic posts in Beirut. The Czech government and its then-foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, took a different route, making Filipi the only “Western” ambassador in the country. Just like in Pyongyang, where the Swedish Embassy has long been the lone outpost of Western interests and provider of services to U.S. and European citizens, the Czech Embassy in Damascus has served that role since 2011. 

There are practical reasons for such an arrangement, with an active presence on the ground—not least first-hand, human intelligence. The Czechs also successfully organized countless repatriations of stranded Americans and EU nationals and negotiated the release of imprisoned tourists and humanitarian workers with the Assad regime. In 2018, two German nongovernmental organization workers were let go by the Syrian government following a protracted back and forth with the Czech Embassy. 

That does not make the figure at the center of events, Filipi, any less of an oddity. A speaker of Arabic, media-savvy, equipped with a doctorate in Ottoman studies, and with a previous stint as ambassador to Ankara, she may seem like the ideal person for the job—though maybe not for the highly unusual thirteen years that she held it. What makes Filipi most stand out, however, are her views, expressed on numerous occasions, which are completely out of sync with the collective position of the EU, not to speak of the United States. Moreover, her actions as ambassador were instrumental in helping key figures in the Assad regime circumvent Western sanctions and travel to the West—and in some cases, settle there. 

To be sure, from Ukraine, through the Middle East, to Taiwan, the Czech Republic has been a consistent voice of moral clarity—which is what makes Filipi’s story and her toe-curling views so extraordinary. For one, Prague’s direct assistance to Kyiv has amounted to over 0.5 percent of GDP. The current foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, was the first foreign leader to visit Israel in the wake of Hamas’ terror attacks in October 2023. The Czechs are also leading the way in alerting Europe to the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, including by embarking on a series of high-profile visits to Taiwan. 

What exactly are Filipi’s views of the situation in Syria? Start with her romanticization of Syria before the Arab Spring. “In 2010, it was a safe country, with happy people – all the communities. And then it came,” she says of the Arab Spring, blaming Western support for “whoever was against Assad, including Islamists, Jihadists” for the country’s current sorry state. The West’s Syria policy has been ineffectual, she claimed earlier this year. “Since 2012, we [the EU] have been saying that Assad needs to go. Nobody says it quite explicitly anymore but the policy of regime change is lurking behind. … The reality, however, is that Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power, after 11 years of sanctions, remains strong and he’s got little reason to hand it over to anyone else.”

To be fair, the expectation that Assad would stay in power indefinitely, notwithstanding Western sanctions, was shared by many until very recently. Filipi’s contrarianism, however, extends to her account of the revolution itself. It was not Assad’s crackdown on protesters in Daraa in April 2011 that prompted Syria’s descent into violence, she says. “Assad ordered that police couldn’t use weapons in Deraa. Moreover, the protest was nowhere near as peaceful as it is claimed – a number of policemen lost their lives there.” This claim stands in sharp contrast with the bulk of available reporting on the ten-day siege by Assad’s forces, including tanks and snipers, who killed hundreds of civilians, including children.

“Syrian opposition wanted reforms, not the end of Assad,” Filipi adds, suggesting that the uprising was orchestrated by outside forces, instead of being a bottom-up phenomenon. “[That the revolution was not spontaneous] is not just my opinion, it’s something I know for a fact. Also, I no longer believe any claim that I can’t verify with my own eyes. Foreign broadcasters announced, with some drama, that Assad was shooting at protesters in the suburbs of Damascus, that a local neighborhood was in flames. I went there, and there was nothing happening, no fires, everything was calm.” 

What is more, Filipi denies the claim, corroborated by the United Nations, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Human Rights Watch, and countless reporters that Assad used chemical weapons against rebels and civilians, including sarin, chlorine, and sulfur mustard. “[They are] not based on facts,” Filipi said of those findings this year, prompting a rare public rebuke from the Czech foreign ministry, her former employer. “We emphatically reject the interpretation of circumstances surrounding chemical attacks in Syria, as presented by the Ambassador and object to any equivocation about the responsibility of the Syrian government for such attacks.”

Rhetoric aside, Filipi used her powers as ambassador to provide practical assistance to Syrian potentates, including figures on sanctions lists. As the Czech ambassador, she was able to grant exceptions to normal Schengen visa applications to Syrians whose paperwork was incomplete or who could normally expect to be denied entry into the EU. The relevant names, according to HlidaciPes, a Czech watchdog, include Luna al-Shibl, the late media advisor to Assad, alongside her husband; Rana Obied, deputy head of Assad’s protocol; Abdulrahman Hassoun, son of Syria’s great mufti; Ali Mahlouf, son of Assad’s cousin Rami Mahlouf (who is sanctioned); Jawad Rida, son of Syria’s former foreign minister Bouthaina Shaaban (also sanctioned); and two of Assad’s nieces, Buchra and Aniseh Chawkat. 

As early as 2017, the Czech intelligence service was ringing alarm bells about Filipi’s lenient visa policy: “The Czech Republic has become, inter alia thanks to its diplomatic mission to Damascus, a coveted safe haven and entry point into the Schengen area for some high-ranking members of the Assad regime or their offspring, who are pursuing their studies in the Czech Republic.” 

However, the former ambassador seems to have enjoyed the trust of then-Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek, as well as the pro-Russian president, Miloš Zeman. In 2016, Zeman awarded Filipi one of the country’s highest honors, the “For Merit” medal. As she was completing her mission in Syria in 2023, Assad granted her the Syrian version of the same award, the Order of Merit, for “developing Czech-Syrian friendship.” Filipi accepted—and remains proud of her choice to this day.

Filipi’s story is a fascinating one as it reveals how consequential individual diplomats, in particular those drawn from smaller pools of talent, might be. Neither the Czech foreign service nor the country’s public square has hundreds of Middle Eastern experts or Arabic speakers who were in a position to effectively scrutinize Filipi’s work and judgment. Backed by key political players, unwittingly in some cases, she has been able to advance the Assad regime’s interests at the expense of the EU and the Western alliance. Exposing her as a fraud now comes woefully too late. May her example and the damage she has done to Czech and Western interests in the Middle East serve as a prophylactic against similar figures vying for positions of influence across the West—not least President Donald Trump’s nominee for the director of national intelligence.

Dalibor Rohac is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC. Bluesky: @daliborrohac.bsky.social.

Image: hanohiki / Shutterstock.com