Bashar al-Assad

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Bashar al-Assad بشار الأسد


President of Syria
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 July 2000
Prime Minister	Muhammad Mustafa Mero Muhammad Naji al-Otari Adel Safar Riyad Farid Hijab Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji Wael Nader al-Halqi
Vice President	Abdul Halim Khaddam Zuhair Masharqa Farouk al-Sharaa Najah al-Attar
Preceded by	Abdul Halim Khaddam (Acting)
Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 June 2000
Deputy	Sulayman Qaddah Mohammed Saeed Bekheitan Hilal Hilal
Leader	Abdullah al-Ahmar
Preceded by	Hafez al-Assad

Personal details
Born	(1965-09-11) 11 September 1965 (age 59) Damascus, Syria
Political party	Syrian Ba'ath Party
Other political affiliations	National Progressive Front
Spouse	Asma al-Assad
Children	Hafez Zein Karim
Alma mater	Damascus University
Website	Official website
Military service
Allegiance	Syria
Branch/service	Syrian Armed Forces
Years of service	1988–present
Rank	Marshal
Unit	Republican Guard (Before 2000)
Commands	Syrian Armed Forces
Battles/wars	Syrian Civil War

Bashar Hafez al-Assad (Template:Lang-ar Baššār Ḥāfiẓ al-ʾAsad, pronunciation Levantine pronunciation: [baʃˈʃaːr ˈħaːfezˤ elˈʔasad]; born 11 September 1965) is the President of Syria, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Ba'ath Party and Regional Secretary of the party's branch in Syria. On 10 July 2000, he was elected president succeeding Hafez al-Assad, his father, who had led Syria for 30 years and died in office a month prior. He was subsequently approved by the Syrian electorate once again in the uncontested 2007 election. On 16 July 2014, Bashar Assad was sworn in for a new seven-year term, after his victory in the controversial June presidential election against two regime sanctioned candidates, the first contested presidential election in Ba'athist Syria's history.

Assad graduated from the medical school of Damascus University in 1988, and started to work as a doctor in the army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, in London, specizing in ophthalmology. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel was killed in a car crash, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. He entered the military academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, born Akhras.

The form of government Assad presides over has been designated as an authoritarian regime by political scientists. The Assad regime describes itself as secular, while experts contend that the regime exploits ethnic and sectarian tensions in the country to remain in power. The regime's sectarian base relying upon the Alawite minority has been noted.

Once seen by the domestic and international community as a potential reformer, Assad disappointed those expectations definitively when he ordered crackdowns and military sieges on Arab Spring protesters, leading to the Syrian Civil War. The Syrian opposition, the United States, Canada, the European Union and the majority of the Arab League had called for al-Assad's resignation from the presidency. During the Syrian Civil War, an inquiry by the United Nations human rights chief found evidence to implicate Assad in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Assad was included in a list of 20 sample war crimes indictments of government officials and rebels handed to the International Criminal Court, by David Crane, an American professor at Syracuse University College of Law in New York. In November 2014, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced that evidence would be brought against Assad.

Early life

Childhood and education: 1965–1988

Further information: Al-Assad family

Bashar al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, the second oldest son of Aniseh and Hafez al-Assad. His last name in Arabic means "the lion"; Assad's peasant paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Wahsh (meaning "Savage") when acquiring minor noble status in 1927. His father, born to an impoverished rural family of Alawite background, rose through the Ba'ath Party ranks to take control of the Syrian branch of the Party in the 1970 Corrective Revolution, culminating in his rise to the Syrian presidency. Hafez al-Assad promoted his supporters within the Ba'ath Party, many of whom were also of Alawite background. After the coup, Alawite strongmen were installed and Sunni, Druze and Ismaili individuals were systematically arrested and purged from the army and Ba'ath party.

Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased. A sister named Bushra died in infancy. Assad's youngest brother, Majd al-Assad, was not a public figure and virtually nothing is known about him other than he was mentally or emotionally disabled, and according to SANA he died in 2009 after a "long illness". Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet and reserved and says that he lacked interest in politics or the military, and the Assad regime's personality cult focused on Bassel prior to his death. Bashar was said to have been bullied by his older brother Bassel. The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father, and Bashar later stated that he only entered his father's office once while he was in power and he never spoke about politics with him. He received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus. In 1982, he graduated from high school and went on to study medicine at Damascus University.

Medicine: 1988–1994

In 1988, Assad graduated from medical school and began working as an army doctor in the biggest military hospital, "Tishrin", on the outskirts of Damascus. Four years later, he went to the United Kingdom to begin postgraduate training in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital, part of the St Mary's group of teaching hospitals in London. Bashar at the time had few political aspirations. His father had been grooming Bashar's older brother Bassel as the future president. Bashar, however, was recalled in 1994 to the Syrian Army, after Bassel's death in a car accident.

Rise to power: 1994–2000

Soon after the death of Bassel, Hafez Assad made the decision to make Bashar the new heir-apparent. Over the next six and half years, until his death in 2000, Hafez went about systematically preparing Bashar for taking over power. Preparations for a smooth transition were made on three levels. First, support was built up for Bashar in the military and security apparatus. Second, Bashar's image was established with the public. And lastly, Bashar was familiarized with the mechanisms of running the country.

To establish his credentials in the military, Bashar entered in 1994 the military academy at Homs, north of Damascus, and was propelled through the ranks to become a colonel in January 1999. To establish a power base for Bashar in the military, old divisional commanders were pushed into retirement, and new, young, Alawite officers with loyalties to him took their place.

Parallel to his military career, Bashar was engaged in public affairs. He was granted wide powers and became a political adviser to President Hafez al-Assad, head of the bureau to receive complaints and appeals of citizens, and led a campaign against corruption. As a result of his campaign against corruption, Bashar was able to remove his potential rivals for president.

In 1998, Bashar took charge of Syria's Lebanon file, which had since the 1970s been handled by Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, one of the few Sunni officials in the Assad regime, who had until then been a potential contender for president. By taking charge of Syrian affairs in Lebanon, Bashar was able to push Khaddam aside and establish his own power base in Lebanon. In that same year after minor consultation with Lebanese politicians, Bashar installed Emile Lahoud, a loyal ally of his, as the President of Lebanon and pushed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri aside, by not placing his political weight behind his nomination as prime minister.

To further weaken the old Syrian order in Lebanon, Bashar replaced the long serving de facto Syrian High Commissioner of Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, with Rustum Ghazali.

Presidency

Damascus Spring and pre–Civil War: 2000–2011

Politics of Syria


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Al-Assad was elected president by an unopposed ballot on 10 July 2000. Immediately after Assad took office, a reform movement made cautious advances during the Damascus Spring, which led to the shut down of Mezzeh prison and the declaration of a wide ranging amnesty releasing hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood affiliated political prisoners. However, security crackdowns commenced again within the year. The New York Times reported that soon after Assad assumed power, he "made Syria’s link with Hezbollah — and its patrons in Tehran — the central component of his security doctrine."

In 2005, the former prime minister of Lebanon was assassinated. The Christian Science Monitor reported that "Syria was widely blamed for Hariri’s murder. In the months leading to the assassination, relations between Hariri and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plummeted amid an atmosphere of threats and intimidation." The BBC reported in December 2005: "New Hariri report 'blames Syria'."

On 27 May 2007, Bashar was approved as president for another seven-year term, with the official result of 97.6% of the votes in a referendum without another candidate.

In his foreign policy, Assad is an outspoken critic of the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Until he became president, Assad was not greatly involved in politics; his only public role was head of the Syrian Computer Society, which introduced the Internet to Syria in 2001.

During the Syrian Civil War

2011–2015

Mass protests in Syria began on 26 January 2011. Protesters called for political reforms and the re-instatement of civil rights, as well as an end to the state of emergency which had been in place since 1963. One attempt at a "day of rage" was set for 4–5 February, though it ended uneventfully. Protests on 18–19 March were the largest to take place in Syria for decades and the Syrian authority responded with violence against its protesting citizens.

First, limited, sanctions against the Assad government were imposed by the U.S. in April 2011, followed by Obama′s executive order as of 18 May 2011 targeting Bashar Assad specifically and six other senior officials. On 23 May 2011, the EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels to add Assad and nine other officials to a list affected by travel bans and asset freezes. On 24 May 2011, Canada imposed sanctions on Syrian leaders, including Assad.

On 20 June, in a speech lasting nearly an hour, in response to the demands of protesters and foreign pressure, Assad promised a national dialogue involving movement toward reform, new parliamentary elections, and greater freedoms. He also urged refugees to return home from Turkey, while assuring them amnesty and blaming all unrest on a small number of saboteurs. Assad blamed the unrest on "conspiracies" and accused the Syrian opposition and protestors of "fitna", breaking with the Syrian Ba'ath Party's strict tradition of secularism.

In July 2011, U.S. foreign minister Hillary Clinton said president Assad had “lost legitimacy.” On 18 August 2011, Barack Obama issued a written statement echoed by the leaders of the UK, France, and Germany, that urged President Assad to "step aside".

In August, Syrian security forces attacked the country's best-known political cartoonist, Ali Farzat, a noted critic of Assad's regime and its five-month crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and dissent. Relatives of the severely beaten humorist told Western media that the attackers threatened to break Farzat's bones as a warning for him to stop drawing cartoons of government officials, particularly Assad. Farzat was hospitalized with fractures in both hands and blunt force trauma to the head.

Since October 2011, Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, repeatedly vetoed Western-sponsored draft resolutions in the UN Security Council that would have left open the possibility of UN sanctions, or even military intervention, against the Bashar Assad government.

By the end of January 2012, it was reported that over 5,000 civilians and protesters (including armed militants) had been killed by the Syrian army, militia (Shabiha) and security agents, while 1,100 people had been killed by the anti-regime forces.

On 10 January 2012, Assad gave a speech in which he maintained the uprising was engineered by foreign countries and proclaimed that "victory near". He also said that the Arab League, by suspending Syria, revealed that it was no longer Arab. However, Assad also said the country would not "close doors" to an Arab-brokered solution if "national sovereignty" was respected. He also said a referendum on a new constitution could be held in March.

On 27 February 2012, Syria claimed that a proposal that a new constitution be drafted received 90% support during the relevant referendum. The referendum introduced a fourteen-year cumulative term limit for the president of Syria. The referendum was pronounced meaningless by foreign nations including the U.S. and Turkey; the European Union announced fresh sanctions against key regime figures. In July 2012, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov denounced Western powers for what he said amounted to blackmail thus provoking a civil war in Syria.

On 15 July 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared Syria to be in a state of civil war, as the nationwide death toll for all sides was reported to have neared 20,000.

On 6 January 2013, Assad, in his first major speech since June, said that the conflict in his country was due to "enemies" outside of Syria who would "go to Hell" and that they would "be taught a lesson". However he said that he was still open to a political solution saying that failed attempts at a solution "does not mean we are not interested in a political solution."

After the fall of four regime military bases in September 2014, which were the last government footholds in Raqqa province, Assad received significant criticism from his Alawite base of support. This included remarks and symbolic gestures made by Douraid al-Assad, cousin of Bashar al-Assad, demanding the resignation of the Syrian Defence Minister, Fahd Jassem al-Freij, following the massacre by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant of hundreds of regime troops captured after the ISIL/ISIS victory at Tabqa Air base. This was shortly followed by Alawite protests in Homs demanding the resignation of the governor, and the dismissal of Assad's cousin Hafez Makhlouf from his security position leading to his subsequent exile to Belarus. Growing resentment towards Assad among Alawites was fuelled by the disproportionate number of soldiers killed in fighting hailing from Alawite areas, a sense that the Assad regime has abandoned them, as well as the failing economic situation exacerbated by government corruption. Figures close to the Assad regime began voicing concerns regarding the likelihood of its survival, with one saying in late 2014; "I don’t see the current situation as sustainable ... I think Damascus will collapse at some point."

Several members of the Assad family who were once considered untouchable died in Latakia under unclear circumstances, raising questions about the Assad family's influence in the pro-government bastion. On 14 March 2015, an influential cousin of Bashar Assad and founder of the shabiha, Mohammed Toufic Assad, was assassinated with five bullets to the head in a dispute over influence in Qardaha. The village is the ancestral home of the Assad family, and the cousin had been previously injured in a dispute in 2012. In April 2015, Assad ordered the arrest of his cousin Munther al-Assad in Alzirah, Lattakia. It remains unclear whether Munther al-Assad's arrest was due to actual crimes or plotting against the regime. After a string of government defeats in northern and southern Syria, analysts noted growing government instability coupled with continued waning support for the Assad government among its core Alawite base of support, and that there were increasing reports of Assad relatives, Alawites, and business men fleeing Damascus for Latakia and foreign countries. Intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk was placed under house arrest sometime in April by the regime, and stood accused of plotting with Bashar Assad's exiled uncle Rifaat al-Assad to replace Bashar as president. Further high profile deaths included the commanders of the Fourth Armoured Division, the Belli military airbase, the army's special forces and of the First Armoured Division, with an errant air strike in Palmyra after the regime's collapse in the Tadmur offensive (2015) killing two officers who were reportedly related to Assad.

Since Russian intervention in September 2015

In early September 2015, against the backdrop of reports that Russia was deploying troops in Syria ready for combat, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that while such talk was "premature", Russia was "already providing Syria with sufficiently serious help: with both materiel and training soldiers, with our weapons". Shortly after the start of direct military intervention by Russia on 30 September 2015 at the formal request of the Syrian government, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the military operation had been thoroughly prepared in advance and defined Russia′s goal in Syria as "stabilising the legitimate power in Syria and creating the conditions for political compromise".

In November 2015, Bashar Assad re-iterated that a political process to end the country's civil war could not begin while it was occupied by "terrorists". On 22 November 2015, Bashar Assad said that within two months of its air campaign Russia had achieved more than the U.S.-led coalition in its fight against ISIL for a year. In a televised interview broadcast by Česká televize on 1 December 2015, he said that the Western leaders who demand his resignation were of no interest to him, as he said nobody takes them seriously because they are "shallow" and controlled by the U.S. At the end of December 2015, senior U.S. officials privately admitted that Russia had achieved its central goal of stabilising the Assad government and, with the costs relatively low, could sustain the operation at this level for years to come.

In January 2016, Russian president Putin said that Russia was supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and was ready to back anti-Assad rebels as long as they were fighting ISIL. On 11 January 2016, the senior Russian defence ministry official said that the "Russian air force was striking in support of eleven groups of democratic opposition that number over 7 thousand people."

On 22 January 2016, FT, citing anonymous "senior western intelligence officials", claimed that Russian general Igor Sergun, the director of GRU, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, had shortly before his sudden death on 3 January 2016 been sent to Damascus with a message from Vladimir Putin asking that president Bashar Assad step aside. Assad was said to have "angrily refused", Sergun’s failed mission in Damascus leaving Assad "more entrenched than before". The newspaper′s report was promptly denied by Putin′s spokesman.

Syria under Bashar Assad's rule

Economy

Human rights

War crimes and crimes against humanity

The FBI has said that at least 10 European citizens were tortured by the Assad regime while detained during the Syrian Civil War, potentially leaving Assad open to prosecution by individual European countries for war crimes committed under his rule. Stephen Rapp, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, has argued that Assad's crimes are the worst seen since those of Nazi Germany. In March 2015, Rapp further stated that the case against Syrian President Bashar Assad is "much better" than those against Slobodan Milošević of Serbia or Charles Taylor of Liberia, both of whom were indicted by international tribunals.

In a February 2015 interview with the BBC, Assad described accusations that the Syrian Arab Air Force used barrel bombs as "childish", claiming that his forces have never used these types of bombs and responded with a joke about not using "cooking pots" either. The BBC Middle East editor conducting the interview, Jeremy Bowen, later described Assad's claim regarding barrel bombs as "patently not true". The Syrian Arab Air Force's use of barrel bombs is well documented.

In March 2015 a report published by Physicians for Human Rights documented that the Assad regime was responsible for the vast majority of the deaths of 600 medical workers since the Syrian Civil War began; 88% of recorded attacks on hospitals and 97% of killings of medical workers were attributed to Assad's forces.

For the last three years evidence compiled by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), made up of investigators and legal experts who formerly worked on war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and for the international criminal court, have cooperated with a team of 50 Syrian investigators to indict Bashar al-Assad and 24 senior members of his regime.

Nadim Shehadi, the director of The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies stated that “In the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein was massacring his people and we were worried about the weapons inspectors Bashar Assad did that too. He kept us busy with chemical weapons when he massacred his people”. A 2015 report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights found that 49 of 56 major massacres displaying "obvious sectarian or ethnic cleansing traits" were carried out by the Assad regime.

In September 2015, France began an inquiry into Assad's regime for crimes against humanity, with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stating "Faced with these crimes that offend the human conscience, this bureaucracy of horror, faced with this denial of the values of humanity, it is our responsibility to act against the impunity of the killers".

Foreign relations

The Middle East Quarterly noted that "As in the case of Iraq, there are lingering questions of Syrian payments to French politicians. Many French politicians join associations and charitable boards both for financial and political gain."

The United States, European Union, the March 14 Alliance, Israel, and France accuse Assad of providing practical support to militant groups active against Israel and against opposition political groups. The latter category would include most political parties other than Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, Assad claimed the United States could benefit from the Syrian experience in fighting organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood at the Hama Massacre.

Assad opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite a long-standing animosity between the Syrian and Iraqi governments. Assad used Syria's seat in one of the rotating positions on the United Nations Security Council to try to prevent the invasion of Iraq. Following the Iraq invasion by US and allied forces, Assad was accused of supporting the Shia insurgency in Iraq. A US general accused him of providing funding, logistics, and training to Iraqi and foreign Shia fundamentalists to launch attacks against U.S. and allied forces occupying Iraq.

Assad argued that Syria's gradual withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, beginning in 2000, was precipitated as a result of the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and ended in May 2005.

Assad met with U.S. scientists and policy leaders during a science diplomacy visit in 2009 and he expressed interest in building research universities and using science and technology to promote innovation and economic growth.

At the outset of the Arab Spring, Syrian state media focused primarily upon Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, demonizing him as pro U.S. and comparing him unfavorably with Assad. Assad told the Wall Street Journal in this same period that he considered himself "anti-Israel" and "anti-West", and that because of these policies he was not in danger of being overthrown.

While hosting an 8 March 2015 delegation from North Korea led by North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sin Hong Chol, Assad stated that Syria and North Korea were being "targeted" because they are "among those few countries which enjoy real independence".

Involvement in Lebanon

According to testimony submitted to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, when talking to Rafic Hariri at the Presidential Palace in Damascus in August 2004, Bashar Assad allegedly said to him, "I will break Lebanon over your head and over Walid Jumblatt's head" if Émile Lahoud was not allowed to remain in office despite Hariri's objections; that incident was thought to be linked to Hariri's subsequent assassination. Rafik Hariri’s attempts to reduce tensions with Syria were considered a “mockery” by Assad, journalist and ad-hoc Lebanese-Syrian intermediary Ali Hamade stated before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in early 2015.

Despite gaining re-election in 2007, Assad’s position was considered by some to have been weakened by the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon following the Cedar Revolution in 2005. There has also been pressure from the U.S. concerning claims that Syria is linked to terrorist networks, exacerbated by Syrian condemnation of the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah military leader, in Damascus in 2008. Interior Minister Bassam Abdul-Majeed stated that, "Syria, which condemns this cowardly terrorist act, expresses condolences to the martyr family and to the Lebanese people."

In May 2015, pro Assad Lebanese politician Michel Samaha was sentenced to four and a half judicial years in jail for his role in a terrorist bomb plot that he claimed Assad was aware of.

Arab–Israeli conflict

In a speech about the 2006 Lebanon War in August 2006, Assad said that Hezbollah had "hoisted the banner of victory," hailing its actions as a "successful resistance."

In April 2008, Assad told a Qatari newspaper that Syria and Israel had been discussing a peace treaty for a year, with Turkey as a go-between. This was confirmed in May 2008, by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. As well as a peace treaty, the future of the Golan Heights is being discussed. Assad was quoted in The Guardian as telling the Qatari paper:

... there would be no direct negotiations with Israel until a new US president takes office. The US was the only party qualified to sponsor any direct talks, told the paper, but added that the Bush administration "does not have the vision or will for the peace process. It does not have anything."

According to leaked American cables, Assad called Hamas an "uninvited guest" and said "If you want me to be effective and active, I have to have a relationship with all parties. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, but we have to deal with the reality of their presence," comparing Hamas to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood which was crushed by his father Hafez al-Assad. He then claimed Hamas would disappear if peace was brought to the Middle East.

Assad has indicated that the peace treaty that he envisions would not be the same kind of peace treaty Israel has with Egypt, where there is a legal border crossing and open trade. In a 2006 interview with Charlie Rose, Assad said "There is a big difference between talking about a peace treaty and peace. A peace treaty is like a permanent ceasefire. There's no war, maybe you have an embassy, but you actually won’t have trade, you won't have normal relations because people will not be sympathetic to this relation as long as they are sympathetic with the Palestinians: half a million who live in Syria and half a million in Lebanon and another few millions in other Arab countries."

During the visit of Pope John Paul II to Syria in 2001, Assad requested an apology to Muslims for the medieval Crusades and criticised Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Comparing their suffering to that endured by Jesus Christ in Palestine, Assad claimed that followers of Judaism "tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad." Responding to claims that his comment was antisemitic, Assad said that whereas Judaism is a racially heterogeneous religion, the Syrian people are the core of the Semitic race and therefore are opposed to the term antisemitism. When offered to retract his comment implying that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' suffering, Assad replied, "As always, these are historical facts that we cannot deny," and stressed that his remarks were not anti-Jewish. In February 2011, Bashar backed an initiative to restore 10 synagogues in Syria, which had a Jewish community numbering 30,000 in 1947, but had only 200 Jews by 2011.

Al-Qaeda and ISIS

Further information: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant § Allegations of Syrian support

Syrian Armed Forces "counter-terrorism" operations: 1 January – 21 November 2014

Attacks against ISIS (6%) Attacks against the Syrian opposition (FSA, al-Nusra Front, etc.) (94%)

In 2001, Assad condemned the September 11 attacks. In 2003, Assad revealed in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper that he doubted the organization of al-Qaeda even existed. He was quoted as saying, "Is there really an entity called al-Qaeda? Was it in Afghanistan? Does it exist now?" He went on further to remark about bin Laden commenting, he "cannot talk on the phone or use the Internet, but he can direct communications to the four corners of the world? This is illogical."

Since the Iraq War and Syrian Civil War Assad's relationship with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been subject to much attention. In 2014, terrorism expert Peter R. Neumann maintained that "in the years that preceded the uprising, Assad and his intelligence services took the view that jihad could be nurtured and manipulated to serve the Syrian government’s aims". During the Iraq War, the Assad regime was accused of training jihadis and facilitating their passage into Iraq, with these infiltration routes remaining active until the Syrian Civil War; US General Jack Keane has stated that "Al Qaeda fighters who are back in Syria, I am confident, they are relying on much they learned in moving through Syria into Iraq for more than five years when they were waging war against the U.S. and Iraq Security Assistance Force". Iraqi president Nouri al-Maliki threatened Assad with an international tribunal over the matter, and ultimately lead to the 2008 Abu Kamal raid, and United States airstrikes within Syria during the Iraq War.

During the Syrian Civil War, multiple opposition and anti-Assad parties in the conflict have accused Assad of collusion with ISIS to some degree. Several sources have claimed that ISIS prisoners were strategically released from Syrian prisons at the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The Assad regime has bought oil directly from both ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front. United States Secretary of State John Kerry has stated that the Assad regime has tactically avoided ISIS forces in order to weaken moderate opposition such as the Free Syrian Army, as well as "even purposely ceding some territory to them in order to make them more of a problem so he can make the argument that he is somehow the protector against them". An IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center database analysis confirmed that only a small percentage of Assad regime attacks were targeted at ISIS in 2014. The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces has stated that the Assad regime has operatives inside ISIS, as has the leadership of Ahrar ash-Sham. ISIS members captured by the FSA have claimed that they were directed to commit attacks by Assad regime operatives. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi disputed such assertions in February 2014, arguing that "ISIS has a record of fighting the regime on multiple fronts", many rebel factions have engaged in oil sales to the Syrian regime because it is "now largely dependent on Iraqi oil imports via Lebanese and Egyptian third-party intermediaries", and while "the regime is focusing its airstrikes where it has some real expectations of advancing" claims that it "has not hit ISIS strongholds" are "untrue". He concluded: "Attempting to prove an ISIS-regime conspiracy without any conclusive evidence is unhelpful, because it draws attention away from the real reasons why ISIS grew and gained such prominence: namely, rebel groups tolerated ISIS."

The UK’s Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant concluded at the outset of the American-led coalition intervention in Syria that "ISIS is a monster that the Frankenstein of Assad has largely created". French President Francois Hollande stated regarding the airstrikes, "Assad cannot be a partner in the fight against terrorism, he is the de facto ally of jihadists". Analyst Noah Bonsey of the International Crisis Group has suggested that ISIS are politically expedient for Assad, as "the threat of ISIS provides a way out because the regime believes that over time the U.S. and other countries backing the opposition will eventually conclude that the regime is a necessary partner on the ground in confronting this jihadi threat", while Robin Wright of the Middle East studies at the Wilson Center has stated "the outside world’s decision to focus on ISIS has ironically lessened the pressure on Assad. And he’s getting away literally with murder on a daily basis". In May 2015, Mario About Zeid of the Carnegie Middle East Center stated that the recent Hezbollah offensive "has exposed the reality of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Qalamoun; that it is operated by the Syrian regime's intelligence", after ISIS in the region engaged in probing attacks against FSA units at the outset of the fighting.

On 1 June 2015, the United States stated that the Assad regime was "making air-strikes in support" of an ISIS advance on Syrian opposition positions north of Aleppo. Referring to the same ISIS offensive, the president of the Syrian National Coalition Khaled Koja accused Assad of acting "as an air force for ISIS", with the Defence Minister of the SNC Salim Idris stating that approximately 180 Assad regime officers were serving in ISIS and coordinating the group's attacks with the Syrian Arab Army. Christopher Kozak of the Institute for the Study of War states that "Assad sees the defeat of ISIS in the long term and prioritizes in the more short-and medium-term, trying to cripple the more mainline Syrian opposition ISIS is a threat that lots of people can rally around and even if the regime trades … territory that was in rebel hands over to ISIS control, that weakens the opposition, which has more legitimacy ". A media consultant who works directly for Assad threatened the Druze community in Suwayda with allowing ISIS to attack them if they refused to let their sons join the Syrian Arab Army; the Druze continued to refuse to be associated with the Assad regime, and ISIL attacks subsequently occurred soon after in northern Suwayda.

In 2015, al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, issued bounty worth millions of dollars for the killing of Assad. The head of the al-Nusra Front, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, said he would pay "three million euros ($3.4 million) for anyone who can kill Bashar al-Assad and end his story". As of 2015, Assad's regional main opponents, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are openly backing the Army of Conquest, an umbrella rebel group that reportedly includes an al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front and another Salafi coalition known as Ahrar ash-Sham. In the course of the conflict, ISIS has repeatedly massacred pro-government Alawite civilians and executed captured Syrian Alawite soldiers, with most Alawites supporting Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite. ISIS, al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and affiliated jihadist groups reportedly took the lead in an offensive on Alawite villages in Latakia Governorate of Syria in August 2013. Assad condemned the November 2015 Paris attacks, but added that France's support for Syrian rebel groups had contributed to the spread of terrorism, and rejected sharing intelligence on terrorist threats with French authorities unless France altered its policy.

Public and personal life

Domestic opposition and support

Further information: Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War

The Druze in Syria have largely sought to remain neutral, "seeking to stay out of the conflict" according to some, while according to others over half support the regime despite its relative weakness in Druze areas. The "Sheikhs of Dignity" movement, which had sought to remain neutral of defend Druze areas, blamed the regime after its leader Sheikh Wahid al-Balous was assassinated and led to large scale protests which left 6 regime security personnel dead. It has been claimed at various stages of the Syrian Civil War that other religious minorities such as the Alawites and Christians in Syria favor the regime of Bashar al-Assad's because of its appearance as a secular government. Syria's Alawite community is widely written about in the foreign media as the hard core support base of the Assad government and is said to dominate the regime's security apparatus.

In 2014, the Christian Syriac Military Council, the largest Christian organization in Syria, formed an alliance with the Free Syrian Army opposed to Assad, joining other Syrian Christian militias such as the Sutoro who had joined the Syrian opposition against the Assad regime.

In June 2014, Assad won a controversial election held in regime held areas (and ignored in opposition held areas and Kurdish areas governed by the PYD) with 88.7% of vote Syrian presidential election. Individuals interviewed in a "Sunni-dominated, middle-class neighborhood of central Damascus" claimed wide support for Assad among the Sunnis in Syria. Attempts to hold an election under the circumstances of an ongoing civil war were criticized by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

International support

Far-right

Assad has attracted support from the far-right both before and during the Syrian Civil War. Former leader of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke hosted a televised speech on Syrian national television in 2005. The Ukrainian far-right figure Georgy Shchokin was invited to Syria in 2006 by the Syrian foreign minister and awarded a medal by the Ba'ath party, while Shchokin's institution the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management awarded Assad with an honorary doctorate. In 2014, research by the Simon Wiesenthal Center concluded that Bashar al-Assad had, like his father Hafez al-Assad, sheltered Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner in Syria. Brunner was Adolf Eichmann’s top lieutenant and was believed to have advised the Assad regime on torture techniques and on purging Syria's Jewish community. Brunner is thought to have died in Syria of natural causes in 2010.

The National Front in France has been a prominent supporter of Assad since the civil war, as has the former leader of the neo-fascist Third Way (Troisième voie) organization. In Italy, the far-right parties Forza Nuova and CasaPound have both been supportive of Assad, with Forza Nuova putting up pro-Assad posters and the party's leader praising Assad's commitment to the ideology of Arab nationalism in 2013, while CasaPound has issued statements of support for Assad. Syrian Social Nationalist Party representative Ouday Ramadan has worked in Italy to organize support movements for Assad. Other far-right political parties expressing support for Assad include the National Democratic Party of Germany, the National Revival of Poland, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Bulgarian Ataka party, the Hungarian Jobbik party, the Serbian Radical Party, the Portuguese National Renovator Party, as well as the Spanish Falange Española de las JONS and Authentic Falange parties. The Greek Neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn has spoken out in favor of the Assad regime, and the more radical Strasserist group Black Lily has claimed to have sent mercenaries to Syria to fight alongside the Syrian regime, specifically mentioning their participation in the Battle of al-Qusayr.

Far-right politician Nick Griffin, the former leader of the British National Party, has been chosen by the Assad regime to represent the United Kingdom as an ambassador and at regime-held conferences; Griffin had been an official guest of the Assad regime three times since the outbreak of the civil war. The European Solidarity Front for Syria, representing several extreme right political groups from across Europe, has had their delegations received by the Syrian national parliament, with one particular delegation being met by Syrian head of parliament Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, Prime Minister Wael Nader Al-Halqi and Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Most recently, Assad met with Filip Dewinter of the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang.

Left-wing

Left-wing support for Assad has been split since the start of the Syrian Civil War; the Assad regime has been accused of cynically manipulating sectarian identity and anti-imperialism to continue its worst activities. Before the Civil War, British politician George Galloway said of Bashar al-Assad, and the country he leads, during a visit to the University of Damascus in November 2005: "For me he is the last Arab ruler, and Syria is the last Arab country. It is the fortress of the remaining dignity of the Arabs," and a "breath of fresh air," Galloway later criticized the Assad regime at the outset of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, dismissing its "gross distortions" regarding the uprising.

Hadash has expressed support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, reiterated his full support for the Syrian people in their struggle for peace and reiterates its strong condemnation of "the destabilizing actions that are still in Syria, with encouragement from members of NATO". The leader of the National Liberation Front, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has sent a cable of congratulations to President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, on the occasion of winning the presidential elections. The leader of Guyana's People's Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, said that Assad's win in the presidential election is a great victory for Syria. The leader of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, congratulated Assad on winning the presidential elections. The leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, Daniel Ortega, has said that President Assad's victory is an important step to "attain peace in Syria and a clear cut evidence that the Syrian people trust their president as a national leader and support his policies which aim at maintaining Syria's sovereignty and unity". The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine supports the Assad regime. The leader of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, has said that electing President Assad means "preserving Syria's unity and sovereignty and that it will help end the crisis and confront terrorism, wishing prosperity and safety to Syria".

International public relations

In order to promote their image and media-portrayal overseas, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad hired American and United Kingdom-based PR firms and consultants. Notably, these secured photoshoots for Asma al-Assad with fashion and celebrity magazines, including Vogue's March 2011 "A Rose In The Desert". These firms included Bell Pottinger Group and Brown Lloyd James, with the latter being paid $5,000 a month for their services.

At the outset of the Syrian Civil War, Syrian government networks were hacked by the group Anonymous, revealing that an ex-Al Jazeera journalist had been hired to advise Assad on how to manipulate the public opinion of the United States. Among the advice was the suggestion to compare the popular uprising against the regime to the Occupy Wall Street protests. In a separate e-mail leak several months later by the Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution, which were published by The Guardian, it was revealed that Assad's consultants had coordinated with an Iranian government media advisor. In March 2015, an expanded version of the aforementioned leaks with nearly 3,000 additional emails from Assad’s personal account, were handed to NOW News and published the following month; the emails detail attempts to manipulate the opinion of American Christians, flirtatious emails between Assad and a Paris-based geneticist Dr. Suzanne Kuzbari, attempts to organize the kidnapping of individuals with border smugglers, attempts to falsify the results of a poll on the FOX News website, frequent remarks showing contempt for the Arab people, and emails from Fawaz Akhras (Asma al-Assad's father) discussing 9/11 conspiracy theories, how "Jews" created Al-Qaeda and how "Hitler was the founding father of the state of Israel”. One email showed Assad's wife Asma Assad sharing a modified version of the famous Arab Nationalist song Biladol Orb Awtani, changing the lyrics from "The Arab provinces are my homelands” to "The Russian provinces are my homelands”.

After the Syrian Civil War began, the Assad regime began a social media campaign which included an online presence on Facebook, YouTube, and most notably Instagram. A Twitter account for Assad was reportedly activated, however it remained unverified. This resulted in much criticism, and was described as "a propaganda campaign that ultimately has made the family look worse". The Assad regime has arrested and forced disappeared pro-regime activists for creating Facebook groups that the regime disapproved of, as well as appealed directly to Twitter to remove accounts it disliked. The social media campaign as well as the previously leaked e-mails lead to comparisons with Hannah Arendt's A Report on the Banality of Evil. In 2013, Assad's 11-year-old son made a post on Facebook calling American soldiers "cowards with new technology" and claiming that Syria would beat America "just like Hezbollah defeated Israel" if they attacked.

In the Summer of 2014, the Syrian Ministry of Defense provided photos to the Material Evidence. Syria. Ukraine exhibition that took place in Berlin and New York City, a self described "photo journalism" exhibition critical of democracy efforts in Ukraine and Syria that sought to ask questions such as "Who is taking advantage of the Syrian war and of what happened to this country?".

In October 2014, images from some 27,000 photographs of torture committed by the Assad regime and smuggled out of the country by a Syrian Army defector during the Syrian Civil war were put on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The lawyers were hired to write the report by the British law firm Carter-Ruck, which in turn was funded by the Government of Qatar.

In November 2014, the Quilliam Foundation reported that a propaganda campaign launched "with the full backing of Assad" spread false reports of European jihadist deaths in order to draw attention away from Assad regime war crimes. Using a picture of a Chechen fighter from the Second Chechen War, pro-Assad media reports disseminated to Western media outlets leading them to publish a false story regarding the death of a non-existent British jihadist.

Personal life

Assad speaks fluent English and basic conversational French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyah school in Damascus. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, born Akhras, a British citizen of Syrian origin, from Acton, London. In 2001, they became the parents of their first-born child, named Hafez after the child's grandfather Hafez al-Assad. Zein was born in 2003 and Karim in 2004. Bashar Assad's sister Bushra al-Assad and mother Anisa al-Assad left Syria in 2012 and 2013 respectively and are living in the United Arab Emirates.

Gallery

Bassel al-Assad, older brother of Bashar, died in a car accident.
Bashar and Asma al-Assad.
Mural of Assad in Latakia, November 2011 Mural of Assad in Latakia, November 2011

Honours and awards

Award or decoration	Country	Date	Place	Note
Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise	Ukraine	21 April 2002
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I	Two Sicilies	21 March 2004	Damascus	Dynastic order of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies; Revoked several years later by HRH the Duke of Castro.
Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic	Italy	11 March 2010	Damascus	Highest ranking honour of the Republic of Italy. Revoked by the President of the Republic on 28 September 2012 for "indignity".
Collar of the Order of the Liberator	Venezuela	28 June 2010	Caracas	Highest Venezuelan state order.
Grand Collar of the National Order of the Southern Cross	Brazil	30 June 2010	Brasília	Brazil's highest order of merit.
Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Cedar	Lebanon	31 July 2010	Beirut	Second highest honour of Lebanon.
High Medal of Honor of the Islamic Republic of Iran	Iran	2 October 2010	Tehran	Highest national medal of Iran.

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The Christian Science Monitor. "Veil ban: Why Syria joins Europe in barring the niqab". The Christian Science Monitor.
"Syria relaxes veil ban for teachers". the Guardian.
Dettmer, Jamie (28 October 2014). "Escaping Assad's Rape Prisons: A Survivor Tells Her Story". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
Rogin, Josh (15 December 2014). "U.S. says Europeans killed by Assad's death machine". Chicago Tribune. Bloomberg News. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
Pileggi, Tamar (15 December 2014). "FBI says Europeans tortured by Assad regime". Retrieved 4 January 2015.
Anna, Cara (11 March 2015). "US: War Crimes Case Vs. Assad Better Than One for Milosevic". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
"'There are no barrel bombs': Assad's Syria 'facts'". Channel Four News. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
Bowen, Jeremy (15 February 2014). "What does Assad really think about Syria's civil war?". BBC News. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
Bell, Matthew (4 February 2014). "What are 'barrel bombs' and why is the Syrian military using them?". PRI. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
"Report: More Than 600 Medical Staff Killed in Syrian War". ABC News. Associated Press. 11 March 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015. Physicians for Human Rights says it has documented 233 attacks on 183 medical facilities across Syria since the country's conflict began in March 2011... The group says in a report released Wednesday that President Bashar Assad's government is responsible for 88 percent of the recorded attacks on hospitals and 97 percent of the killings of medical workers.
Borger, Julian (12 May 2015). "Smuggled Syrian documents enough to indict Bashar al-Assad, say investigators". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
"Iran spends billions to prop up Assad". TDA. Bloomberg. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
Dettmer, Jamie (19 June 2015). "A Damning Indictment of Syrian President Assad's Systematic Massacres". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
Talagrand, Pauline (30 September 2015). "France opens probe into Assad regime for crimes against humanity". Yahoo News. AFP. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
Olivier Guitta (Fall 2005). "The Chirac Doctrine". Middle East Quarterly.
"Assad sets conference conditions". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
"Bashar Assad Teaches Visiting Members of U.S. Congress How to Fight Terrorism". Middle East Media Research Institute. 16 January 2002. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
"Iraq war illegal, says Annan". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 16 September 2004. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
Thomas E. Ricks (17 December 2004). "General: Iraqi Insurgents Directed From Syria". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
^ "An hour with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad". Charlie Rose. 27 March 2006. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
Turekian, Vaughan (22 September 2014). "Beginnings". Science & Diplomacy. 3 (3).
Sadiki 2014, p. 147.
"Assad: Syria, North Korea Targeted Over 'Real Independence'". Voice of America. 8 March 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Bergman, Ronen (10 February 2015). "The Hezbollah Connection". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
Knutsen, Elise (14 April 2015). "Assad considered Hariri's conciliation a mockery". The Daily Star. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
"Bomb kills top Hezbollah leader". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. 13 February 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
"Assad knew about Samaha plot, video indicates". The Daily Star. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
Rogers, Paul (11 October 2006). "Lebanon: the war after the war". openDemocracy. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
Walker, Peter; News Agencies (21 May 2008). "Olmert confirms peace talks with Syria". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 21 May 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2008. Israel and Syria are holding indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as a mediator... {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
Roee Nahmias (30 November 2010). "Assad: Iran won't attack Israel with nukes". Ynetnews. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
Meris Lutz (2 December 2010). "Syria's Assad seems to suggest backing for Hamas negotiable, leaked cables say". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
"Syria and Judaism: The disappearance of the Jews". The Economist. 10 May 2001. Retrieved 1 June 2011. The pope's pilgrimage in the steps of St Paul was widely seen as a success, even if it did not elicit an apology to the Muslim world for the medieval crusades. Syria's president, Bashar Assad, basked in international praise for his religious tolerance. But, notably, this tolerance was not extended to Judaism. Welcoming John Paul, Assad compared the suffering of the Palestinians to that of Jesus Christ. The Jews, he said, "tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad." The pope was taken on a detour to the town of Quneitra, flattened by the Israelis in their partial withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and called upon to bless the president's vision of a Christian-Islamic alliance to vanquish the common threat of colonising Jews.
"Polish experience shaped Pope's Jewish relations". CBC News. April 2005. Retrieved 7 May 2011. The decision to beatify Pius IX, the pope who kidnapped a Jewish child in Bologna and who put Rome's Jews back in their ghetto, was one question mark. John Paul's silence in 2001 when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said Jews had killed Christ and tried to kill Mohammad was another.
"Pope appeals for Mideast peace". Damascus: CNN. 5 May 2001. Archived from the original on 29 May 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session. Government Printing Office. May 2001. p. 7912. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
"ADL Urges World and Religious Leaders to Denounce Syrian President's Anti-Jewish Diatribe Delivered in Presence of the Pope". Anti-Defamation League. New York. 6 May 2001. Archived from the original on 8 April 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
"'Scharon plant den Krieg'". Der Spiegel (in German). 9 July 2001. Retrieved 23 June 2011. Was soll denn das? Wir Araber sind doch selbst Semiten, als Nachfahren von Sem, einem der drei Söhne Noahs. Kein Mensch sollte gegen irgendeine Rasse eingestellt sein, gegen die Menschheit oder Teile von ihr. Wir in Syrien lehnen den Begriff Antisemitismus ab, weil dieser Begriff diskriminierend ist. Semiten sind eine Rasse, wir gehören nicht nur zu dieser Rasse, sondern sind ihr Kern. Das Judentum dagegen ist eine Religion, die allen Rassen zuzuordnen ist. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
Derhally, Massoud A. (7 February 2011). "Jews in Damascus Restore Synagogues as Syria Tries to Foster Secular Image". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 May 2011. The project, which began in December, will be completed this month as part of a plan to restore 10 synagogues with the backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and funding from Syrian Jews.
^ Vinograd, Cassandra; Omar, Ammar Cheikh (11 December 2014). "Syria, ISIS Have Been 'Ignoring' Each Other on Battlefield, Data Suggests". NBC. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
"Blair gets a public lecture on the harsh realities of the Middle East". The Guardian. 1 November 2001.
"Assad doubts existence of al-Qaeda". USA Today. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
Neumann, Peter (3 April 2014). "Suspects into Collaborators". London Review of Books. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Scarborough, Rowan (19 August 2013). "Al Qaeda 'rat line' from Syria to Iraq turns back against Assad". The Washington Times. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Daragahi, Borzou (21 June 2014). "Iraq alliances twisted by Syria conflict". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 March 2015. Just five years ago, Mr Maliki threatened to drag the Assad government to an international tribunal for facilitating the flow of al-Qaeda militants into Iraq to disrupt the US military presence and attack Shia civilians. Mr Assad's support for extremists wreaking havoc in Iraq in 2008 had grown so egregious that the US launched air strikes against suspected militants inside Syrian territory.
Speakwell Cordall, Simon (21 June 2014). "How Syria's Assad Helped Forge ISIS". Newsweek. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Kelley, Michael, B (21 January 2014). "It's Becoming Clear That Assad Fueled The Al-Qaeda Surge That Has Kept Him In Power". Business Insider. Retrieved 8 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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"Kerry: There Is Evidence That Assad Has Played "Footsie" With ISIS". Real Clear Politics. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2015. JOHN KERRY: Regrettably Congressman, no we're not going to be undercut, because. If Assad's forces indeed do decide to focus on ISIS significantly, which they haven't been doing throughout this period, one of our judgements is there is evidence that Assad has played footsie with them, and he has used them as a tool of weakening the opposition. He never took on their headquarters, which were there and obvious, and other assets that they have. So we have no confidence that Assad is either capable of or willing to take on ISIL."
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Ridley, Yyonne (22 September 2014). "EXCLUSIVE: Shaikh Hassan Abboud's final interview". Middle East Monitor. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
"Al-Qaeda detainees reveal ties with Assad". Al Arabiya News. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad (11 February 2014). "The Assad Regime and Jihadis: Collaborators and Allies?". Middle East Forum. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Hullah, Henry (29 August 2014). "New leader of the Free Syrian Army: We warned the Americans about ISIS". CNN. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
"French leader calls Assad a 'jihadist ally'". Al Jazeera. 28 August 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Boghani, Priyanka (27 February 2015). "New Reports Detail Assad's Brutal Tactics in Syria". PBS. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
Abou Zeid, Mario (11 May 2015). "Assad's Last Battle". Yahoo News Maktoob. Al Jazeera. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
U.S. Embassy Syria (1 June 2015). "Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population" (Tweet). Retrieved 2 June 2015 – via Twitter.
Barnard, Anne (2 June 2015). "Assad's Forces May Be Aiding New ISIS Surge". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
Bar'el, Zvi (3 June 2015). "Assad's cooperation with ISIS could push U.S. into Syria conflict". Haaretz. Retrieved 4 June 2015. Salim Idris, defense minister in the rebels' provisional government, said approximately 180 Syrian Army officers are currently serving with ISIS and coordinating the group's military operations with the army.
Engel, Pamela (4 June 2015). "Why Assad's air force is now a force multiplier for ISIS". Yahoo Finance. Business Insider. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
Lucas, Scott (9 June 2015). "Syria Feature: Druze Groups Block Movement of Military's Weapons and Tanks Out of Southeastern Province". EA WorldView. Retrieved 9 June 2015. Hafiz Qarqut, a writer and political analyst, supported the claims, "Luna a-Shibl, who works as a media consultant for Assad and is from Suwayda, met with the Druze after the rebels captured Busra a-Sham", a historic town near Suwaida, taken by rebels in April. The Assad advisor allegedly threatened that the regime would support the Islamic State's entry into Suwayda "if the province avoided sending young men for military service". Soon after the meeting, groups affiliated with the Islamic State began attacks near the Khalkhala airport in northern Suwayda Province.
"Gulf allies and 'Army of Conquest". Al-Ahram Weekly. 28 May 2015.
"Bounty For Bashar Assad? Al Qaeda Nusra Front Offers $3.4M For Syrian President, $2.3M For Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, Leader Says". International Business Times. 13 October 2015.
"Nusra Front issues bounties for Assad, Nasrallah". Al Arabiya. 13 October 2015.
Kim Sengupta (12 May 2015). "Turkey and Saudi Arabia alarm the West by backing Islamist extremists the Americans had bombed in Syria". The Independent.
"Gulf allies and ‘Army of Conquest’". Al-Ahram Weekly. 28 May 2015.
"'Army of Conquest' rebel alliance pressures Syria regime". Yahoo News. 28 April 2015.
^ "Syrian rebels accused of sectarian murders". The Daily Telegraph. 11 August 2013. Hundreds of Alawite civilians have been killed, kidnapped or have disappeared during a rebel offensive on President Bashar al-Assad's heartland province of Latakia, local residents have reported. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
"Syria's Assad thinks he is winning. He could be wrong". The Washington Post. 9 September 2014. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
"Syria: Executions, Hostage Taking by Rebels". Human Rights Watch. 10 October 2013.
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Irish, John (17 November 2015). "Syria's Assad says no intelligence sharing with France unless change in policy". Reuters. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
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The 'neutral' Druze sheikh angering Syria's regime
Six Syria regime loyalists killed after Druze cleric assassinated
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Cousins, Sophie (22 December 2014). "Remaining Christians in Syria fight to save their land". USA Today. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/03/syria-presidential-electi_n_5435706.html Syria's 2014 Presidential Election Ignored In Opposition-Held Areas
Wladimir van Wilgenburg. "Syria's Kurdish region to boycott presidential elections". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
"Syria’s Assad reelected with 88.7% of vote". The Times of Israel. 4 June 2014.
"Syrian election will undermine political solution: U.N.'s Ban". Mobile.reuters.com. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^ MacDonald, Alex (2 December 2014). "Europe's far-right activists continue to throw their weight behind Syria's Assad". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
Mammone, Godin & Jenkins 2012, p. 197.
"Most-wanted Nazi likely died four years ago in Syria, says man who hunted him". Fox News. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
Rudoren, Jodi (30 November 2014). "Alois Brunner, Long-Sought Nazi, Is Said to Have Died 4 Years Ago in Syria". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
Pilgrim, Sophie (27 February 2012). "French far right rallies in defence of Syria's Assad". France 24. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
Mackey, Robert (12 September 2013). "Italy's Far Right Salutes Putin for Anti-Gay Law and Support for Assad". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
Shwayder, Maya (20 April 2013). "Assad's Unlikely Allies: Who In The West Is Supporting The Maligned Syrian Dictator, And Why". International Business Times. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
^ Monti, Germano (14 April 2014). "A red-brown alliance for Syria". Qantara.de. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
"NPD in Syrien: Brauner Besuch beim Assad-Regime" (in German). publikative.org. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
Mark Potter, ed. (5 September 2015). "Austrian far-right leader blames U.S., NATO for migrant crisis". Reuters. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
"Top Bulgarian Nationalist Not Included in Syria Visit". novinite.com. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
Taylor, Adam (2 December 2014). "Life in Assad's Syria is great, tweets far-right British politician". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
"ОМЛАДИНА СРС УРУЧИЛА АМБАСАДИ СИРИЈЕ ПИСМО ПОДРШКЕ У БОРБИ ПРОТИВ ТЕРОРИЗМА" (in Serbian). Српска радикална странка. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
"PNR culpa políticos pela morte de refugiados" (in Portuguese). TVI 24. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
"Cinco razones por la que Falange Española de las JONS apoya la solidaridad con Siria" (in Spanish). Falange Española de las JONS. 14 June 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
"Los cristianos están siendo masacrados en Oriente Medio" (in Spanish). Falange Auténtica. 26 July 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
"Greek Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party Blasts Holocaust Remembrance as 'Unacceptable'". The Jewish Daily Forward. 18 February 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
Whelan, Brian (1 October 2013). "Are Greek Neo-Nazis Fighting for Assad in Syria?". Vice News. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
"Disgraced U.K. politician's visit to Syria raises eyebrows back home". Haaretz. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
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Hashemi & Postel 2013, p. 11–13.
Hashemi & Postel 2013, p. 231.
"Galloway heaps praise on Syrian regime", The Scotsman, 18 November 2005
"Galloway praises Syrian president", BBC News, 19 November 2005
Galloway, George (14 August 2011). "A Statement on the Situation in Syria, by George Galloway". Facebook. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
"Israeli Communist Party supports Bashar Assad – in Arabic only - +972 Magazine". 972mag.com.
"Venezuela congratulated by Bashar Al Assad in Syrian presidential victory - laInfo.es". lainfo.es.
"syriatimes.sy - President Assad Receives Congratulations from President Bouteflika on Winning Elections". syriatimes.sy. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
"الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء - Syrian Arab News Agency". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
Hazem al-Sabbagh. "President al-Assad receives congratulatory cable from South African President Zuma". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
"syriatimes.sy - Nicaragua's Ortega Congratulates President Al-Assad on Winning Elections". syriatimes.sy.
"Iran Increases Aid to PFLP Thanks to Syria Stance - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
"Pro-Assad Palestinians call for Yarmouk truce". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
h.said. "President al-Assad receives congratulatory letter from President Abbas". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
"Abbas congratulates Al-Assad for re-election as Syrian president". Middle East Monitor - The Latest from the Middle East. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
"Abbas says he backs Syria's "war against terrorism"". Al Akhbar English. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
^ Carter, Bill; Chozick, Amy (10 June 2012). "Syria's Assads Turned to West for Glossy P.R." The New York Times.
Max Fisher. "The Only Remaining Online Copy of Vogue's Asma al-Assad Profile". The Atlantic.
Joan Juliet Buck. "Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert". Gawker. Gawker Media.
^ Ajbaili, Mustapha (14 September 2013). "Assad makes PR comeback, targets 'American psyche'". Al Arabiya. Retrieved 15 March 2015. Assad's regime also activated its YouTube channel and multiple Facebook accounts.
Gallagher, Sean (8 February 2012). "Anonymous exposes e-mails of Syrian presidential aides". Ars Technica. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Booth, Robert; Mahmood, Mona; Harding, Luke (14 March 2013). "Exclusive: secret Assad emails lift lid on life of leader's inner circle". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2015. Before a speech in December his media consultant prepared a long list of themes, reporting that the advice was based on "consultations with a good number of people in addition to the media and political adviser for the Iranian ambassador".
Rowell, Alex (18 May 2015). "International relations". NOW News. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
^ Rowell, Alex (18 May 2015). "Managing the crackdown: "The solution doesn't come with romance"". NOW News. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
^ Rowell, Alex (18 May 2015). "The last castle of Arab dignity". NOW News. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
Rowell, Alex (18 May 2015). "Flying over the cuckoo's nest". NOW News. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
Dewey, Caitlin (30 July 2013). "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad joined Instagram. Here are his first photos". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Jones, Allie (30 August 2013). "The Failed Public Relations Campaign of Bashar al Assad's Family". The Wire. Retrieved 15 March 2015. a propaganda campaign that ultimately has made the family look worse
"Assad emails: 'Fares closed all your Twitter accounts'". The Guardian. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Jones, Johnathan (6 September 2013). "The Syrian presidency's Instagram account shows the banality of evil". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Mackey, Robert (15 March 2012). "Syria's First Couple and the Banality of E-Mail". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Khalaf, Roula (18 March 2012). "Assad: faithful student of ruthlessness". The Financial Times. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Stack, Laim (29 August 2013). "Facebook Post Said to Be by Assad's Son Dares Americans to Attack". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Cush, Andy (11 August 2014). "Who's Behind This Shady, Propagandistic Russian Photo Exhibition?". Gawker. Retrieved 15 March 2015. The first obvious sign that the items on display might not be exactly objective comes from the placards below a few of the photos: "provided by the Syrian Ministry of Defense."
"'Material Evidence. Syria. Ukraine' on display in Berlin (PHOTOS, VIDEO)". RT. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Isikoff, Michael Abdel (13 October 2014). "Inside Bashar Assad's Torture Chambers". Yahoo News. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
"Photos Presented to the House Foreign Affairs Committee by "Caesar" at Briefing on "Assad's Killing Machine Exposed: Implications for U.S. Policy"". House Committee on Foreign Affairs. 30 July 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Mick Krever and Schams Elwazer, CNN (20 January 2014). "EXCLUSIVE: Gruesome Syria photos may prove torture by Assad regime". CNN. Retrieved 20 April 2015. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
"Assad allies invent British jihadist death for political ends – think tank". RT. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
Rafizadeh, Majid (17 April 2013). "How Bashar al-Assad Became So Hated". The Atlantic. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
"The road to Damascus (all the way from Acton)". BBC News. 31 October 2001. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
"Syria factfile: Key figures". London: The Daily Telegraph. 24 February 2003. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
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"Dettaglio decorato: Al-Assad S.E. Bashar Decorato di Gran Cordone" (in Italian). quirinale.it. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
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Bibliography

Blanford, Nicholas (2006). Killing Mr Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-202-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Bronner, Stephen Eric (2007). Peace Out of Reach: Middle Eastern Travels and the Search for Reconciliation. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813124469. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Hashemi, Nader; Postel, Danny, eds. (2013). The Syria Dilemma. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262026833. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Heydemann, Steven; Leenders, Reinoud (2013). Middle East Authoritarianisms: Governance, Contestation, and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0804793339. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Leverett, Flynt L. (2005). Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial By Fire. Brookings Institution. ISBN 978-0-8157-5204-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Lesch, David W. (2011). Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18651-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Mammone, Andrea; Godin, Emmanuel; Jenkins, Brian, eds. (2012). Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe: From Local to Transnational. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415502658. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Ma'oz, Moshe; Ginat, Joseph; Winckler, Onn (1999). Modern Syria: From Ottoman Rule to Pivotal Role in the Middle East. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1-898723-83-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Mikaberidze, Alexander, ed. (2013). Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598849257. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: A-C. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-32109-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Moosa, Matti (1987). Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0815624110. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Pierret, Thomas (2013). Religion and State in Syria: The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107609907. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Sadiki, Larbi (2014). Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415523912. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Seale, Patrick; McConville, Maureen (1992). Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520069763. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History (1st ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-841-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Zisser, Eyal (2007). Commanding Syria: Bashar Al-Asad And the First Years in Power. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-153-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

Official website
- Biography, decrees, speeches, interviews, press releases
Appearances on C-SPAN
Bashar al-Assad on Charlie Rose
Bashar al-Assad at IMDb
Template:Worldcat id
Bashar al-Assad collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
Bashar al-Assad collected news and commentary at The Guardian
Bashar al-Assad collected news and commentary at Ha'aretz
Bashar al-Assad collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Profile at the LookLex Encyclopedia
Unofficial website

Articles

Syria’s Proxy Forces in Iraq, Al-Hayat (London), 12 April 2003 at Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Profile: Syria's Bashar al-Assad BBC News, 10 March 2005
Bashar al-Assad's Lebanon Gamble, William Harris, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2005
Syria's Leaders, Esther Pan, Council on Foreign Relations, 10 March 2006
Interview With Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, The Wall Street Journal, 31 January 2011
Profile: Bashar al-Assad, Al Jazeera English, 25 March 2011
PBS Interview on YouTube with Charlie Rose, PBS, aired 9 September 2013
#AssadLeaks, NOW News, 18 May 2015

Political offices
Preceded byAbdul Halim Khaddam Acting	President of Syria 2000–present	Incumbent

v t e Presidents of Syria (list)
Syrian Federation (1922–1924)	Syrian Federation Barakat
State of Syria (1925–1930)	State of Syria Barakat Pierre-Alype* Nami al-Hasani*
First Syrian Republic (1930–1950)	First Syrian Republic al-Hasani* Solomiac* al-Abid H. al-Atassi al-Khatib al-Azm* al-Hasani al-Ulshi* al-Ayyubi al-Quwatli al-Za'im al-Hinnawi* H. al-Atassi
Second Syrian Republic (1950–1958)	Second Syrian Republic H. al-Atassi Shishakli* Selu Shishakli al-Kuzbari* H. al-Atassi al-Quwatli
United Arab Republic (1958–1961)	United Arab Republic Nasser
Second Syrian Republic (1961–1963)	Second Syrian Republic al-Kuzbari* al-Nuss* al-Qudsi
Ba'athist Syria (1963–2024)	Ba'athist Syria L. al-Atassi al-Hafiz N. al-Atassi al-Khatib* H. al-Assad Khaddam* B. al-Assad
* acting

Syria articles

History

Timeline Years in Syria
Prehistorical Syria	Levantine corridor Natufian culture Halaf culture Uruk period Abu Hureyra Aswad Yarmukian culture
Ancient Syria	Amorites Akkadian Empire Arameans Canaanites Middle Assyrian Empire Ebla Yamhad Qatna Mari Ugarit Aram-Damascus Syro-Hittite states Neo-Assyrian Empire Neo-Babylonian Empire Achaemenid Syria Seleucid Syria Roman Syria Palmyrene Empire Byzantine Syria
Medieval Syria	Muslim conquest (636) Caliphal Syria (Bilad al-Sham) Tulunid dynasty Ikhshidid dynasty Zangid dynasty Hamdanid dynasty Mirdasid dynasty Fatimid Syria Saljuqid Syria Crusader states County of Edessa Principality of Antioch County of Tripoli Ayyubid Syria (1174–1260) Mamluk Syria (1260–1516)
Early modern Syria	Ottoman Syria (1516–1918)
Modern Syria	Arab kingdom (1920) Haj Fadel Government French Mandate Syrian Federation (1922–25) State of Syria (1925–30) Mandatory Republic (1930–46) independent First Republic (1946–50) Second Republic (1950–1963) Ba'athist Syria (1963–2024) Civil war Post-Assad Syria (2024–present)

Geography

Borders Cities Districts Governorates Rivers Volcanoes
Features	Al-Jazira Anti-Lebanon Mountains Euphrates Golan Heights Hauran Hermon Orontes Syrian Desert
Related	Syria (region) Southern Syria Fertile Crescent Levant

Politics

Military

Economy

Agriculture Central Bank Companies Industry International rankings Pound (currency) Securities Exchange (stock exchange)
Infrastructure	Energy and mineral resources Petroleum industry Telecommunications Transport Water supply and sanitation

Society

Censorship Demographics Education Health Hunger People diaspora refugees (2011–present) women Public holidays Scouting Squatting
Culture	Anthem Coat of arms Cuisine (wine) Films Flag Media State television Music Religion Smoking

Category

v t e Arab Spring
"Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam"
Events by country	Algeria Bahrain Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mauritania Morocco Oman Palestine Saudi Arabia Sudan Syria Tunisia Western Sahara Yemen
Groups	Bahrain: Al Wefaq February 14 Youth Coalition Egypt: April 6 Youth Movement Kefaya Muslim Brotherhood (FJP) National Association for Change National Democratic Party National Salvation Front Revolutionary Socialists Shayfeencom Ultras Ahlawy Libya: National Liberation Army National Transitional Council Mauritania: February 25th Movement Saudi Arabia: Women to drive movement CDHRAP Society for Development and Change Syria: Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Regional Command National Command National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces Free Syrian Army Syrian Revolution General Commission Syrian National Council National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change Hizb ut-Tahrir Foreign fighters Tunisia: Constitutional Democratic Rally Ennahda Popular Front Tunisian General Labour Union Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet Yemen: Alliance of Yemeni Tribes Al-Islah Hashid Houthis General People's Congress Hiraak
Notable people	Women in the Arab Spring Algeria: Abdelaziz Bouteflika Ahmed Ouyahia Bahrain: Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Hasan Mushaima Ali Salman Ali Jawad al-Sheikh Egypt: Hosni Mubarak Omar Suleiman Mohamed Hussein Tantawy Ahmed Nazif Ahmed Shafik Wael Ghonim Kamal Ganzouri Khaled Mohamed Saeed Essam Sharaf Mohamed ElBaradei Mohamed Morsi Hesham Qandil Bassem Youssef Jordan: King Abdullah II Marouf al-Bakhit Samir Rifai Libya: Muammar Gaddafi Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Mustafa Abdul-Jelil Mahmud Gebril Mohammed Nabbous Mauritania: Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf Morocco: Mohammed VI Abbas El Fassi Saudi Arabia: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Khaled al-Johani Manal al-Sharif Nimr al-Nimr Sudan: Omar al-Bashir Hassan al-Turabi Syria: Bashar al-Assad Muhammad Naji al-Otari Adel Safar Riyad Farid Hijab Wael Nader al-Halqi Maher al-Assad Burhan Ghalioun Moaz al-Khatib Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb Tunisia: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Mohamed Ghannouchi Moncef Marzouki Rashid al-Ghannushi Fouad Mebazaa Beji Caid Essebsi Hamadi Jebali Mohamed Bouazizi Chokri Belaid United Arab Emirates: UAE Five Yemen: Ali Abdullah Saleh Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi Tawakkol Karman Abdul Majeed al-Zindani Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar Sadiq al-Ahmar Abdul-Malik al-Houthi Mohammed Ali al-Houthi
Impact	Occupy movement Albania Armenia Azerbaijan 2011 2013 Belarus Burkina Faso China Greece India 2011 2012 Iran Iraqi Kurdistan Israel Maldives Mali Mexico 2011 2012 Portugal Russia Spain Turkey 2011–2012 2013 United Kingdom United States Libyan civil war (2011–present) Egyptian crisis (2011–2014)
UN Resolutions	65/265 1970 1973 2009 2014 2016
International reactions	Bahrain Egypt Libya civil war military intervention death of Muammar Gaddafi Syria Tunisia Yemen
Domestic reactions	Egypt Libya domestic responses Syria
Timelines by country	Bahrain Egypt Libya Saudi Arabia Syria Yemen Yemen Libya Egypt
Category

Syrian civil war

Overviews

Main overviews	Syria Rojava Syrian civil war Timeline Background and causes Syrian peace process Syrian government reactions Belligerents Inter-rebel conflict Spillover Cities and towns Sectarianism and minorities Syrian Desert campaign (December 2017–present)
Effects and ongoing concerns	Casualties of the Syrian civil war Refugees of the Syrian civil war Humanitarian aid during the Syrian civil war Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war
Phases and processes	Syrian revolution Early insurgency phase 2012–2013 escalation Ceasefires Syrian peace process
World reaction	International reactions to the Syrian civil war Foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war Reactions to the fall of the Assad regime
Specific groups and countries	Russian involvement Russian intervention Turkish involvement Turkish occupation of northern Syria Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone Russian-Turkish agreement on Syria US intervention in the Syrian civil war 2023 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria Kurdish Area in Syria Syrian Democratic Forces Rojava conflict U.S. task force
Agreements and dialogues	Russian-Turkish agreement on Syria Relations between Syrian government and Kurdish groups in Syria
Transitional phase	Syrian transitional government

Timeline

Background

2011
Jan–Apr
May–Aug
Sep–Dec

2012
Jan–Apr
May–Aug
Sep–Dec

2013
Jan–Apr
May–Dec

2014
Jan–Jul
Aug–Dec

2015
Jan–Jul
Aug–Dec

2016
Jan–Apr
May–Aug
Sep–Dec

2017
Jan–Apr
May–Aug
Sep–Dec

2018
Jan–Apr
May–Aug
Sep–Dec

2019
Jan–Apr
May–Aug
Sep–Dec

2020
Jan–Dec

2021
Jan–Dec

2022
Jan–Dec

2023
Jan-Dec

2024
Jan–Oct
Nov–present

Spillover

Israel and Golan Heights:	March 2017 incident February 2018 incident May 2018 Israel–Iran incidents
Iraq:	Akashat ambush Operation al-Shabah April 2014 Iraqi border airstrike
Jordanian border incidents	April 2014 Jordanian border airstrike
Lebanon:	Lebanese border clashes Battle of Sidon Iranian embassy bombing in Beirut North Lebanon clashes Qalamoun (Jul–Aug 2017)
Turkey:	December 2011 Turkish border clash 2012 Turkish F-4 Phantom shootdown 2012 Turkish border clashes 2013 Reyhanlı car bombings January 2014 Turkish attack in Syria Assassination of Andrei Karlov Russian Air Force Al-Bab incident 2020 Balyun airstrikes Operation Spring Shield
Elsewhere:	Deir ez-Zor missile strike (Iran)

Belligerents

Ba'athist regime

Politics of Ba'athist Syria	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region Syrian Social Nationalist Party Arab Socialist Movement Syrian Communist Party
Military and militias	Syrian Armed Forces Syrian Resistance PFLP-GC al-Quds Brigade Palestine Liberation Army
Foreign support	Hezbollah involvement Iranian involvement Liwa Fatemiyoun Russian involvement medical facility targeting military intervention Wagner Group Russia–Syria–Iran–Iraq coalition Popular Mobilization Forces

Opposition

Interim government	National Coalition Local Coordination Committees Syrian National Council Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change Syrian Revolution General Commission Syrian Support Group Adopt a Revolution Syrian Patriotic Group
Opposition militias	Syrian National Army Free Syrian Army National Front for Liberation Army of Glory Authenticity and Development Front Army of Free Tribes Revolutionary Commando Army Muslim Brotherhood in Syria Grey Wolves
Foreign support	US intervention Jordanian intervention Qatar Saudi Arabia Turkey

Autonomous Administration
of North and East Syria

DFNS Government	Democratic Union Party Kurdish National Council Smaller political parties
SDF militias	People's Protection Units Women's Protection Units Anti-Terror Units Al-Sanadid Forces Army of Revolutionaries SDF military councils Syriac Military Council Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa Northern Democratic Brigade
Support	Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Kurdistan Workers' Party International Freedom Battalion Sinjar Resistance Units Êzîdxan Women's Units

Islamists

Islamic State

al-Qaeda and allies

People

Elections	2011 local elections 2012 parliamentary election 2014 presidential election 2015 Northern local elections 2016 parliamentary election 2017 Northern local elections 2017 Northern regional elections 2018 local elections 2020 parliamentary election 2021 presidential election
Issues	Casualties Cities and towns Chemical weapons Damaged heritage sites Foreign involvement Human rights violations Humanitarian aid International demonstrations and protests International reactions Massacres Mass graves Refugees Sectarianism and minorities Status of the Golan Heights Spillover in Lebanon Syrian government reactions
Peace process	Arab League monitors Friends of Syria Group Kofi Annan peace plan UN supervision mission Lakhdar Brahimi peace plan U.S.–Russia peace proposals 39th G8 summit UN Security Council Resolution 2118 Geneva II conference 2015 Zabadani cease-fire agreement Vienna talks 2016 Geneva talks Idlib demilitarization (2018–present) First Northern Syria Demilitarization Deal Second Northern Syria Demilitarization Deal Syrian Constitutional Committee
Investigations/legal cases	Investigations International Commission Chemical weapons War crimes cases Germany Canada + Netherlands vs Syria
Related topics	Exclusive mandate Fourth Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference International recognition of the Syrian National Council Syria Files Syrian detainee report Syrian media coverage 2015 European migrant crisis Syrian civil war in popular culture

Category

Categories:

Misplaced Pages

Early life

Childhood and education: 1965–1988

Medicine: 1988–1994

Rise to power: 1994–2000

Presidency

Damascus Spring and pre–Civil War: 2000–2011

During the Syrian Civil War

2011–2015

Since Russian intervention in September 2015

Syria under Bashar Assad's rule

Economy

Human rights

War crimes and crimes against humanity

Foreign relations

Involvement in Lebanon

Arab–Israeli conflict

Al-Qaeda and ISIS

Public and personal life

Domestic opposition and support

International support

Far-right

Left-wing

International public relations

Personal life

Gallery

Honours and awards

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

Reports

External links