Current position
Supported by independent sources
SANA described him in 2026 as “Media Adviser to the Presidency of the Republic”. 1
In the transcribed testimony
According to testimony
In the transcribed part, al-Dabbash says Ahmad Muwaffaq Zaidan called people who were preparing a sit-in and asked them to postpone it for a few days pending the outcome of negotiations. He then speaks of promises of a meeting with the Interior Minister or a possible meeting with the President, and presents this in the context of containing protests and pressuring critics. 2
The 2015 Snowden documents
Published allegation
In 2015, media outlets reported, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden and published by The Intercept, that U.S. agencies had treated Zaidan as a “terrorism suspect” and linked him to al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in intelligence databases and analyses. Zaidan denied belonging to either organisation and said his contacts arose from his work as a journalist. 3
This leaked intelligence assessment should not be confused with a public, official listing by OFAC or the UN Security Council.