Imad Mustafa: for the record

Some four or five years ago, I privately urged `Imad Mustafa to quit serving the regime (as ambassador in Washington, DC) and to return to academic life in Syria.  I tried to convince him that it is futile and impossible to try to reform the regime from within, and that the regime is incompatible with reform.  His frank responses were off the record.  I was not pleased to see his fierce defense of the regime but we have not communicated in a few years.