Assad mouthpiece Bouthaina Shaaban to speak at US conference

Bouthaina Shaaban, one of the crudest propagandists for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, will be given a platform to speak at a conference in Washington on Thursday.

Shaaban, Assad's media adviser who has appeared several times on Western news outlets to peddle the regime's narrative on the Syrian rebellion, will speak by remote video at an event being hosted by a group called the "Global Alliance for Terminating ISIS" in the US capital.

The propagandist has often been compared to late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's comical mouthpiece Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf.

She has regularly denied war crimes are being commited by her government, accusing the West and the regime's opponents of fabricating the claims.

Shaaban is known for deliberately conflating all Syrian rebels with jihadists and terrorists, a narrative that has recently found traction in the West keen to end the conflict in Syria at any cost, in part to curb the influx of refugees to its shores.

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The Syrian regime spin doctor is on the US sanctions list. The Treasury Department says Americans are generally prohibited from dealing with anyone on its Specially Designated Nationals List.

The department wouldn't say if facilitating Shaaban's media appearance through video is permissible or not.

State Department spokeswoman John Kirby on Wednesday called Shaaban a "propaganda mouthpiece for the Assad regime," in remarks carried by AP.