In the 1980s, Assad became a doctor, and in the early 1990s he was training inLondon as anophthalmologist. In 1994, after his elder brotherBassel al-Assad died in a car crash, Assad was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role asheir apparent. Assad entered the military academy and in 1998 took charge of theSyrian occupation of Lebanon begun by his father. On 17 July 2000, Assad became president, succeeding his father, who had died on 10 June 2000.[4] Hopes that the UK-educated Assad would bring reform to Syria and relax the occupation of Lebanon[5] were dashed following a series of crackdowns in 2001–2002 that ended theDamascus Spring, a period defined by calls for transparency and democracy. Assad's rule would arguably become morerepressive than his father's.[6]
Assad's first decade in power was marked byextensive censorship, summary executions,forced disappearances, discrimination against ethnic minorities, and extensive surveillance by theBa'athist secret police. While the Assad government described itself assecular, various political scientists and observers noted that his regime exploitedsectarian tensions in the country. Although Assad inherited Hafez's power structures andpersonality cult, he lacked the loyalty received by his father and faced rising discontent against his rule. As a result, many people from his father's regime resigned or were purged, and the political inner circle was replaced by staunch loyalists fromAlawite clans. Assad's earlyeconomic liberalisation programs worsened inequalities and centralised the socio-political power of the loyalist Damascene elite of theAssad family, alienating the Syrian rural population, urban working classes, businessmen, industrialists, and people from traditional Ba'ath strongholds. Assad was forced to end the Syrian occupation of Lebanon during theCedar Revolution in 2005, which was triggered bythe assassination ofLebanese prime ministerRafic Hariri. TheMehlis report implicated Assad's regime in the assassination, with a particular focus onMaher al-Assad,Assef Shawkat,Hassan Khalil,Bahjat Suleiman, andJamil Al Sayyed.[7]
Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, as the second son and third child ofAnisa Makhlouf andHafez al-Assad.[31][32]al-Assad inArabic means "the lion". Assad's paternal grandfather,Ali al-Assad, had managed to change his status from peasant to minor notable and, to reflect this, in 1927 he had changed the family name fromal-Wahsh (lit.'the Savage') toal-Assad.[33]
Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, was born to an impoverished rural family ofAlawite background and rose through theBa'ath Party ranks to take control of theSyrian branch of the Party in theCorrective Revolution, culminating in his rise to theSyrian presidency.[34] Hafez promoted his supporters within the Ba'ath Party, many of whom were also of Alawite background.[31][35] After the revolution, Alawite strongmen were installed whileSunnis,Druze, andIsmailis were removed from the army and Ba'ath party.[36] Hafez al-Assad's 30-year military rule witnessed the transformation of Syria into a dynastic dictatorship. The new political system was led by the Ba'ath party elites dominated by the Alawites, who were fervently loyal to the Assad family and controlled the military, security forces and secret police.[37][38]
The younger Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased. A sister named Bushra died in infancy.[39] Assad's younger brother, Majd, was not a public figure and little is known about him other than he wasintellectually disabled,[40] and died in 2009 after a "long illness".[41]
Unlike his brothers Bassel andMaher, and second sister, also namedBushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military.[42][40][43] The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father,[44] and Bashar later stated that he only entered his father's office once while he was president.[45] He was described as "soft-spoken",[46] and according to a university friend, he was timid, avoided eye contact and spoke in a low voice.[47]
Assad received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus.[42] In 1982, he graduated from high school and then studied medicine atDamascus University.[48]
Medical career and rise to power
Photograph ofBassel al-Assad (1962–1994), Bashar's older brother, who was initially destined to succeed his father in thepresidency of Syria, but died in an automobile accident in 1994
In 1988, Assad graduated from medical school and began working as an army doctor at Tishrin Military Hospital on the outskirts of Damascus.[49][50] Four years later, he settled in London to start postgraduate training inophthalmology atWestern Eye Hospital.[51] He was described as a "geeky I.T. guy" during his time in London.[52] Bashar had few political aspirations,[53] and his father had been grooming Bashar's older brother Bassel as future president.[54] Shortly after Bassel died in a car accident in 1994, Bashar was recalled to the Syrian Army. State propaganda soon began elevating Bashar's public image as "the hope of the masses" to prepare the public for a continuation of the rule of theAssad dynasty.[55][56]
Soon after the death of Bassel, Hafez al-Assad decided to make Bashar the newheir apparent.[57] Over the next six and a half years, until his death in 2000, Hafez prepared Bashar for succession. GeneralBahjat Suleiman, an officer in theDefense Companies, was entrusted with overseeing preparations for a smooth transition,[58][44] which 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 familiarised with the mechanisms of running the country.[59]
To establish his credentials in the military, Bashar entered themilitary academy at Homs in 1994 and was propelled through the ranks to become a colonel of the eliteSyrian Republican Guard in January 1999.[49][60][61] 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.[62]
Young Bashar al-Assad serving in the military
In 1998, Bashar took charge of Syria'sLebanon file, which had since the 1970s been handled by Vice PresidentAbdul Halim Khaddam, who had until then been a potential contender for president.[62] By taking charge of Syrian affairs in Lebanon, Bashar was able to push Khaddam aside and establish his own power base in Lebanon.[63] In the same year, after minor consultation with Lebanese politicians, Bashar installedEmile Lahoud, a loyal ally of his, as thePresident of Lebanon and pushed formerLebanese Prime MinisterRafic Hariri aside, by not placing his political weight behind his nomination as prime minister.[64] To further weaken the old Syrian order in Lebanon, Bashar replaced the long-serving de facto SyrianHigh Commissioner of Lebanon,Ghazi Kanaan, withRustum Ghazaleh.[65]
Parallel to his military career, Bashar was engaged in public affairs. He was granted wide powers and became head of the bureau to receive complaints and appeals of citizens, and led a campaign against corruption. As a result of this campaign, many of Bashar's potential rivals for president were put on trial for corruption.[49] Bashar also became the President of theSyrian Computer Society and helped to introduce the internet in Syria, which aided his image as a moderniser and reformer.Ba'athist loyalists in the party, military and theAlawite sect were supportive of Bashar al-Assad, enabling him to become his father's successor.[66]
After the death of Hafez al-Assad on 10 June 2000, theConstitution of Syria was amended. The minimum age requirement for the presidency was lowered from 40 to 34, which was Bashar's age at the time.[67] The sole candidate of the presidential referendum, Assad was subsequentlyconfirmed president on 10 July 2000, with 97.29% support for his leadership.[68][69][70] In line with his role as President of Syria, he was also appointed thecommander-in-chief of theSyrian Armed Forces and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party.[66] A series ofstate elections were held every seven years which Assad won with overwhelming majority of votes. The elections are unanimously regarded by independent observers as asham process and boycotted by theopposition.[c][d] The last two elections – held in 2014 and 2021 – were conducted only in areas controlled by the Syrian government during the country's ongoing civil war and condemned by theUnited Nations.[80][81][82] In the five years before 2011 the government of Bashar consolidated state power over the economy and political system. This consolidation went hand in hand with measures which were filled with nepotism and corruption.[83]
Immediately after he took office, a reform movement known asDamascus Spring led by writers, intellectuals, dissidents, cultural activists, etc. made cautious advances, which led to the closing ofMezzeh prison and the declaration of a wide-ranging amnesty releasing hundreds ofMuslim Brotherhood affiliated political prisoners.[84] However, security crackdowns commenced again within the year, turning it into the Damascus Winter.[85][86] Hundreds of intellectuals were arrested, targeted, exiled or sent to prison and the state of emergency was continued. The early concessions were rolled back to tighten authoritarian control, censorship was increased and the Damascus Spring movement was banned under the pretext of "national unity and stability". The regime's policy of a "social market economy" became a symbol of corruption, as Assad loyalists became its sole beneficiaries.[66][87][88][89] Several discussion forums were shut down and many intellectuals were abducted by the Mukhabarat, tortured and killed. Many analysts believe that initial promises of opening up were part of a government strategy to find Syrians who were not supportive of the new leadership.[86]
Following theSeptember 11 attacks and during the early stages of the US-ledwar on terror, "Syria had emerged as one of theCIA's most effective intelligence allies in the fight againstal-Qaeda,"[91] with "the quality and quantity of information from Syria [having] exceeded the Agency's expectations."[91] Syria closely cooperated with the CIA'sdetention and interrogation program of people deemed "illegal enemy combatants"; Syrian prisons were a major site ofextraordinary rendition by the CIA of alleged al-Qaeda members where they were tortured by Syrian interrogators on behalf of the CIA.[92][93][94] According to a 2013 report by theOpen Society Foundations, Syria was one of the "most common destinations for rendered suspects" under the CIA's program.[95]
Assassination of Rafic Hariri and Cedar Revolution
"It will beLahoud.. opposing him is tantamount to opposingAssad himself.. I will breakLebanon over your head and overWalid Jumblatt's head. So you had better return toBeirut and arrange the matter on that basis."
— Assad's threats toRafic Hariri in August 2004, over the issue of tenure extension of Syrian ally Emile Lahoud[96]
The crime-scene inBeirut where Hariri and 21 others were killed in a terrorist attack in February 2005. The area was cordoned off to conduct an international investigation.
On 14 February 2005,Rafic Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, wasassassinated in a massive truck-bomb explosion inBeirut, killing 22 people.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."[97] Bashar promoted his brother-in-lawAssef Shawkat, a key figure suspected of orchestrating the terrorist attack, as the chief ofSyrian Military Intelligence Directorate immediately after Hariri's death.[98]
Protesters take to the streets during Lebanon's "Independence Intifada", also known as theCedar Revolution.
The killings caused massive uproar, triggering anintifada inLebanon and hundreds of thousands of protestors poured on the streets to demand total withdrawal of Syrian military forces. After mounting international pressure that called Syria to implement theUNSC Resolution 1559, Bashar al-Assad declared on 5 March that he would order the departure of Syrian soldiers. On 14 March 2005, more than a millionLebanese protestors – Muslims, Christians, and Druze – demonstrated in Beirut, marking the monthly anniversary of Hariri's murder. UN Resolution 1595, adopted on 7 April, sent aninternational commission to investigate the assassination of Hariri. By 5 May 2005, United Nations had officially confirmed the total departure of all Syrian soldiers, ending the 29-year oldmilitary occupation. The uprisings that occurred in these months came to be known as Lebanon's "independence intifada" or the "Cedar Revolution".[99]
UN investigation commission's report published on 20 October 2005 revealed that high-ranking members ofSyrian intelligence and Assad family had directly supervised the killing.[100][101][102] TheBBC reported in December 2005 that "Damascus has strongly denied involvement in the car bomb which killed Hariri in February".[103]
Assad with Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh in New Delhi, India, 18 June 2008
On 27 May 2007, Assad wasapproved for another seven-year term in a referendum on his presidency, with 97.6% of the votes supporting his continued leadership.[104][105][106] Opposition parties were not allowed in the country and Assad was the only candidate in the referendum.[70] Syria's opposition parties under the umbrella ofDamascus Declaration denounced the elections as illegitimate and part of the regime's strategy to sustain the "totalitarian system".[107][108] Elections in Ba'athist Syria were officially designated by the state as the event of "renewing the pledge of allegiance" to the Assads and voting was enforced by the Ba'athist military apparatus as a compulsory duty for every citizen. Announcement of the results were typically followed by pro-Assad rallies conducted by the Ba'ath party across the country extolling the regime, wherein participants were forced to declare their "devotion" to the President and celebrate "the virtues" of the Assad dynasty.[109][110][111]
Protests in Syria began on 26 January 2011 following theArab Springprotests that called for political reforms and the reinstatement of civil rights, as well as an end to thestate of emergency which had been in place since 1963.[115] One attempt at a "day of rage" was set for 4–5 February, though it ended uneventfully.[116] 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.[117] In his first public response to the protests delivered on 30 March 2011, Assad blamed the unrest on "conspiracies" and accused the Syrian opposition and protestors of seditious "fitna", toeing the party-line of framing the Ba'athist state as the victim of an international plot. He also derided theArab Spring movement, and described those participating in the protests as "germs" andfifth-columnists.[118][119][120]
"Throughout the speech, al-Assad remained faithful to the basic ideological line ofSyrian Baathism: the binary opposition of a devilishly determined, conspiring 'outside' bent on hurting a heroically defending and essentially good 'inside'... consistent withBaathist dualism, [the speech] makes the sparing, if not grudging, mention of supposedly minor dissent in this 'inside'. This dissent loses its political meaning, or moral justification, acquiring 'othering' essence when the president places it in the dismissive context of thefitna... Following this hard-line speech, the protesters' demands moved from reforming to overthrowing the regime."
The U.S. imposed limited sanctions against the Assad government in April 2011, followed byBarack Obama's executive order as of 18 May 2011 targeting Bashar Assad specifically and six other senior officials.[122][123][124] 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.[125] On 24 May 2011, Canada imposed sanctions on Syrian leaders, including Assad.[126]
On 20 June, in response to the demands of protesters and international pressure, Assad promised a national dialogue involving movement toward reform,new parliamentary elections, and greaterfreedoms. He also urgedrefugees to return home from Turkey, while assuring themamnesty and blaming all unrest on a small number of saboteurs.[127]
Hundreds of thousands of anti-Assad protesters parade the Syrian flag and shout theArab Spring sloganAsh-shab yurid isqat an-nizam (the people want to bring down the regime!) in the Assi square, during theSiege of Hama, 22 July 2011.
In July 2011, U.S. Secretary of StateHillary Clinton said Assad had "lost legitimacy" as president.[123] On 18 August 2011, Barack Obama issued a written statement that urged Assad to "step aside".[128][129][130] In August, the cartoonistAli Farzat, a critic of Assad's government, was attacked. Relatives of the humourist told media outlets 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 hospitalised with fractures in both hands and blunt force trauma to the head.[131][132]
Since October 2011, Russia, as apermanent member of theUN Security Council, repeatedlyvetoed 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 Assad government.[133][134][135]
On 10 January 2012, Assad gave a speech in which he maintained the uprising was engineered by foreign countries and proclaimed that "victory [was] near". He also said that theArab 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.[136]
By the end of January 2012, it was reported byReuters that over 5,000 civilians and protesters (including armed militants) had been killed by the Syrian army, security agents and militia (Shabiha), while 1,100 people had been killed by "terrorist armed forces".[137]
Destroyed vehicle on a devastatedAleppo street, 6 October 2012
On 27 February 2012, Syria claimed that a proposal that a new constitution be drafted received 90% support during therelevant 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 EU announced fresh sanctions against key regime figures.[138] In July 2012, Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov denounced Western powers for what he said amounted to blackmail thus provoking a civil war in Syria.[139] On 15 July 2012, theInternational Committee of the Red Cross declared Syria to be in a state of civil war,[140] as the nationwide death toll for all sides was reported to have neared 20,000.[141]
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."[142][143] In July 2014, Assad renewed his third term of presidency after voting process conducted in pro-regime territories which were boycotted by the opposition and condemned by theUnited Nations.[80][81][82] According toJoshua Landis: "He's (Assad) going to say: 'I am the state, I am Syria, and if the West wants access to Syrians, they have to come through me.'"[81]
A poster of Bashar al-Assad at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus
In 2013, reports emerged about an assassination attempt on Bashar that may have motivated a chemical weapons strike by the Assad regime. NBC News reported that the United States conducted investigations to determine whether a failed attempt on his life had influenced the decision to deploy such weapons.[144] During the early stages of the Syrian Civil War in 2012, multiple reports of assassination attempts were made. These allegations coincided with intensifying conflict and growing opposition to Assad's rule.[145]
After the fall of four military bases in September 2014,[146] which were the last government footholds in theRaqqa Governorate, Assad received significant criticism from his Alawite base of support.[147] This included remarks 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 theIslamic State of hundreds of government troops captured after the IS victory atTabqa Airbase.[148] This was shortly followed by Alawite protests inHoms demanding the resignation of the governor,[149] and the dismissal of Assad's cousinHafez Makhlouf from his security position leading to his subsequent exile to Belarus.[150] Growing resentment towards Assad among Alawites was fuelled by the disproportionate number of soldiers killed in fighting hailing from Alawite areas,[151] a sense that the Assad regime has abandoned them,[152] as well as the failing economic situation.[153] Figures close to Assad 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."[146]
Military situation in September 2015
In 2015, several members of the Assad family died inLatakia under unclear circumstances.[154] On 14 March, an influential cousin of Assad and founder of theshabiha, Mohammed Toufic al-Assad, was assassinated with five bullets to the head in a dispute over influence inQardaha – theancestral home of the Assad family.[155] In April 2015, Assad ordered the arrest of his cousin Munther al-Assad in Alzirah, Latakia.[156] It remains unclear whether the arrest was due to actual crimes.[157]
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.[158] Reports indicated that Assad's relatives, Alawites, and businessmen were increasingly fleeing Damascus for Latakia and foreign countries.[159][160] Intelligence chiefAli Mamlouk was placed under house arrest sometime in April and stood accused of plotting with Assad's exiled uncleRifaat al-Assad to replace Bashar as president.[161] 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 during thePalmyra offensive killing two officers who were reportedly related to Assad.[162]
Assad meets with Russian presidentVladimir Putin inSochi, Russia, 11 November 2017
On 4 September 2015, when prospects of Assad's survival looked bleak, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin said that Russia was providing the Assad government with sufficiently "serious" help: with both logistical and military support.[163][164][165] Shortly after the start ofdirect military intervention by Russia on 30 September 2015 at the formal request of the Syrian government, Putin stated 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".[166] Putin's intervention saved the Assad regime at a time when it was on the verge of a looming collapse. It also enabled Moscow to achieve its key geo-strategic objectives such as total control of Syrian airspace, naval bases that granted permanent martial reach across theEastern Mediterranean and easier access to intervene in Libya.[165]
In November 2015, Assad reiterated that a diplomatic process to bring the country's civil war to an end could not begin while it was occupied by "terrorists", although it was considered byBBC News to be unclear whether he meant onlyISIL or Western-supported rebels as well.[167] On 22 November, Assad said that within two months of its air campaign Russia had achieved more in its fight against ISIL than theU.S.-led coalition had achieved in a year.[168] In an interview withCzech Television on 1 December, he said that the leaders who demanded his resignation were of no interest to him, as nobody takes them seriously because they are "shallow" and controlled by the United States.[169][170] At the end of December 2015, senior U.S. officials privately admitted that Russia had achieved its central goal of stabilising Syria and, with the expenses relatively low, could sustain the operation at this level for years to come.[171]
In December 2015, Putin stated that Russia was supporting Assad's forces and was ready to back anti-Assad rebels in a joint fight against IS.[172] On 22 January 2016, theFinancial Times, citing anonymous "senior western intelligence officials", claimed that Russian generalIgor Sergun, the director ofGRU, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of theArmed 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 Assad step aside.[173] TheFinancial Times' report was denied by Putin's spokesman.[174]
It was reported in December 2016 that Assad's forces had retaken half of rebel-heldAleppo, ending a 6-year stalemate in the city.[175][176] On 15 December, as it was reported government forces were on the brink of retaking all of Aleppo – a "turning point" in the civil war, Assad celebrated the "liberation" of the city, and stated, "History is being written by every Syrian citizen."[177]
After the election ofDonald Trump, the priority of the U.S. concerning Assad was unlike the priority of theObama administration, and in March 2017,U.S. Ambassador to the UNNikki Haley stated the U.S. was no longer focused on "getting Assad out",[178] but this position changed in the wake of the2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.[179] Following themissile strikes on a Syrian airbase on the orders of President Trump, Assad's spokesperson described the U.S.' behaviour as "unjust and arrogant aggression" and stated that the missile strikes "do not change the deep policies" of the Syrian government.[180] President Assad also told theAgence France-Presse that Syria's military had given up all its chemical weapons in 2013, and would not have used them if they still retained any, and stated that the chemical attack was a "100 percent fabrication" used to justify a U.S. airstrike.[181] In June 2017, Russian President Putin said "Assad didn't use the [chemical weapons]" and that the chemical attack was "done by people who wanted to blame him for that".[182] UN and international chemical weapons inspectors from theOrganisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found the attack was the work of the Assad regime.[183]
Re-election and support for Russian invasion of Ukraine
In the2021 presidential elections held on 26 May, Assad secured his fourth 7-year tenure; by winning 95.2% of the eligible votes. The elections were boycotted by theopposition andSDF; while the refugees and internally displaced citizens were disqualified to vote; enabling only 38% of Syrians to participate in the process. Independent international observers as well as representatives of Western countries described the elections as a farce.United Nations condemned the elections for directly violating Resolution 2254; and announced that it has "no mandate".[189][190][191][192][193]
Assad with Iranian PresidentEbrahim Raisi in Damascus, 3 May 2023
On 10 August 2021, theSecond Hussein Arnous government was formed.[194] Under Assad, Syria became a strong supporter of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and was one of the five countries that opposed theUN General Assembly resolution denouncing the invasion, which called upon Russia to pull back its troops. Three days prior to the invasion, Foreign MinisterFaisal Mekdad was dispatched to Moscow to affirm Syria's recognition ofDonetsk andLuhansk separatist republics. A day after the invasion, Assad praised the invasion as "a correction of history and a restoration of balance in theglobal order after thefall of the Soviet Union" in a phone call withVladimir Putin.[195][196][197] Syria became the first country after Russia to officially recognise the "independence and sovereignty" of the two breakaway regions in June 2022.[198][199][200] Syria formally broke its diplomatic ties to Ukraine on 20 July 2022, citing theprinciple of reciprocity.[201]
On the 12th anniversary of beginning of the protests ofSyrian Revolution, Assad held a meeting withVladimir Putin during an official visit to Russia. In a televised broadcast with Putin, Assad defended Russia's "special military operation" as a war against "neo-Nazis andold Nazis" of Ukraine.[202][203] He recognised theRussian annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts and ratified the new Russian borders, claiming that the territories were "historically Russian". Assad also urged Russia to expand itsmilitary presence in Syria by establishing new bases and deploying more troops on the ground, strengthening its military role in Syria.[e]
In September 2023, Assad attended theAsian Games opening ceremony inHangzhou and met with Chinese PresidentXi Jinping.[214] They announced the establishment of a China–Syria strategic partnership.[215] In November 2023, Assad attended theArab–Islamic extraordinary summit in Riyadh.[216] In May 2024, he attended the Arab League summit inBahrain.[217] In this time period the government refused any major incentives for reconciliation and repatriation of the "former"rebel groups. Bashar was encouraged to do so by its allies, such as those in theAxis of Resistance, but he did not follow up on these suggestions leaving the society polarised.[83]
In December 2024 the Islamist groupHayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),took control of Aleppo, prompting a retaliatory airstrike campaign by President Assad and his Russian allies. The strikes, which targeted population centers and several hospitals in therebel-held city ofIdlib, resulted in at least 25 deaths, according to theWhite Helmets rescue group.NATO countries issued a joint statement calling for the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure to prevent further displacement and ensure humanitarian access. They stressed the urgent need for a Syrian-led political solution, in accordance withUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, which advocates for dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition forces. Therebel offensive, which had begun on 27 November 2024, continued itsadvance into Hama Governorate following their capture of Aleppo.[218][219][220]
On 4 December 2024, fierce clashes erupted inHama Governorate as the Syrian army engaged Islamist-led insurgents in a bid to halt their advance on the key city ofHama. Government forces claimed to have launched a counteroffensive with air support, pushing back rebel factions, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), around six miles from the city. However, despite reinforcements, the rebels captured the city on 5 December.[221] The fighting led to widespread displacement, with nearly 50,000 people fleeing the area and over 600 casualties reported, including 104 civilians.[222] On 6 December, rebels began encircling the capital Damascus.[223] On 7 December, rebels captured the strategic city of Homs, cutting off Damascus from regime strongholds on the coast.[224] A few hours later in the early morning of 8 December, Assad fled Damascus just beforeits fall to the rebels,[225] ending 54 years of the Assad family's rule.[226] In the final hours of his rule, he reportedly abandoned the capital after Russian officials showed him footage indicating regime forces were collapsing, taking only a few aides and his son Hafez while leaving others behind. As he departed, his longtime driver expressed disappointment, asking, "You're really leaving us?" to which Assad replied, "What about you people? Aren't you going to fight?", an episode observers cited as emblematic of his detachment and unwillingness to assume responsibility for the collapse of his authority.[227] The Russian government said that Assad had "stepped down" as president following a personal decision and had left Syria.[228][229] Following efforts by Russian foreign ministerSergey Lavrov to facilitate his departure, Assad, who left under great secrecy, was reported to have gone first to the Russian-operatedKhmeimim Air Base nearLatakia before proceeding to Moscow.[230]Interfax, quoting an unnamed source at theKremlin, said that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow and that the Russian government had granted themasylum "on humanitarian grounds".[13]
On 16 December, theTelegram account of the Syrian presidency published a statement attributed to Assad saying that he had gone to a Russian military base inLatakia Governorate "to oversee combat operations" following the fall of Damascus but was evacuated out of the country by Russia after coming under siege from rebel forces, adding that he had no intention of resigning or going into exile.[231]
Exile in Moscow
On 7 April 2025, Russian Ambassador to IraqElbrus Kutrashev told theIslamic Republic News Agency that Assad's settlement in Moscow was conditional on his total withdrawal from media and political activities. He added that the asylum granted to Assad and his family had been personally ordered by Russian presidentVladimir Putin and would remain unchanged.[232] In an interview withThe New York Times in April 2025, Syrian presidentAhmed al-Sharaa said that Syrian officials requested Russia toextradite Assad as a condition for allowing their military presence in Syria, but Russia refused.[233]
On 20 September 2025, while in exile in Moscow, Assad was hospitalized in critical condition. TheSyrian Observatory for Human Rights has alleged he was poisoned in his home, though not specifying whether this was intentional or accidental. He was eventually discharged nine days later.[234] On 13 October 2025, Lavrov denied reports that Assad was poisoned, saying Russia granted asylum to Assad and his family for humanitarian reasons and that Assad “has no issues living in our capital.”[235]
On 8 October 2025, the German outletDie Zeit reported that Assad and his family had settled into a luxuryskyscraper apartment, where he reportedly made occasional visits to a shopping mall and spent much of his time playingonline games while remaining under Putin's protection and control.[236][237][238]The Guardian reported that Assad was likely residing in the upscale neighbourhood ofRublyovka, had returned to hismedical training, and was back in the classroom, studyingRussian and takingophthalmology lessons.[239]
During a meeting with Putin on 15 October 2025, Syrian President al-Sharaa requested the extradition of Assad to Syria.[240]
Post-presidency revelations
In December 2025, leaked footage, originally filmed during a 2018 car tour in Eastern Ghouta, obtained byAl Arabiya showed Assad reportedly saying "to hell with Ghouta" while speaking withLuna al-Shibl, a senior Syrian media adviser and former presidential spokesperson, which drew renewed outrage over the regime's record.[241]
According to a 2026 report inThe Atlantic, former associates described him in later years as leading an increasingly insular life, spending time playing video games such asCandy Crush and engaging in extramarital relationships, including wives of government officials. The article described him as stubborn and resistant to lifelines from allies, with his reliance on a small circle of confidants contributing to strategic misjudgments and a leadership disconnected from much of the Syrian population.[227]
At the onset of theSyrian revolution, corruption in Syria was endemic, and the country was ranked 129th in the 2011Corruption Perceptions Index.[242] Since the 1970s, Syria's economy has been dominated by the patronage networks of Ba'ath party elites andAlawite loyalists of the Assad family, who established control over Syria's public sectors based on kinship and nepotism. The pervasive nature of corruption had been a source of controversy within the Ba'ath party circles and the wider public; as early as the 1980s.[243]Bashar al-Assad's economic liberalisation program during the 2000s became a symbol of corruption and nepotism, as the scheme's beneficiaries were Alawite loyalists who seized a significant portion of the privatised sectors and business assets. The government's actions alienated the vast majority of the Syrian public, particularly the rural and urban working classes, who strongly disliked the resulting economic disparities that became overtly visible.[37][87] Assad's cousinRami Makhlouf was the regime's most favored oligarch during this period, marked by the institutionalisation of corruption, handicapping of small businesses and casting down privateentrepreneurship.[244] The persistence of corruption, sectarian bias towards Alawites, nepotism and widespread bribery that existed in party, bureaucracy and military led to popular anger that resulted in the eruption of the 2011 Syrian Revolution. The protests were the most fierce in working-class neighbourhoods, which had long bore the brunt of the regime's exploitation policies that privileged its own loyalists.[245][246]
According toABC News, as a result of the Syrian civil war, "government-controlled Syria is truncated in size, battered and impoverished."[247] Economic sanctions (theSyria Accountability Act) were applied long before the Syrian civil war by the U.S. and were joined by the EU at the outbreak of the civil war, causing disintegration of the Syrian economy.[248] These sanctions were reinforced in October 2014 by the EU and U.S.[249][250] Industry in parts of the country that are still held by the government is heavily state-controlled, witheconomic liberalisation being reversed during the current conflict.[251] TheLondon School of Economics has stated that as a result of the Syrian civil war, awar economy has developed in Syria.[252] A 2014European Council on Foreign Relations report also stated that a war economy has formed:
Three years into a conflict that is estimated to have killed at least 140,000 people from both sides, much of the Syrian economy lies in ruins. As the violence has expanded and sanctions have been imposed, assets and infrastructure have been destroyed, economic output has fallen, and investors have fled the country. Unemployment now exceeds 50 percent and half of the population lives below the poverty line ... against this backdrop, a war economy is emerging that is creating significant new economic networks and business activities that feed off the violence, chaos, and lawlessness gripping the country. This war economy – to which Western sanctions have inadvertently contributed – is creating incentives for some Syrians to prolong the conflict and making it harder to end it.[253]
AUN commissioned report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research states that two-thirds of the Syrian population now lives in "extreme poverty".[254] Unemployment stands at 50 percent.[255] In October 2014, a $50 million mall opened inTartus which provoked criticism from government supporters and was seen as part of an Assad government policy of attempting to project a sense of normalcy throughout the civil war.[256] A government policy to give preference to families of slain soldiers for government jobs was cancelled after it caused an uproar[151] while rising accusations of corruption caused protests.[153] In December 2014, the EU banned sales of jet fuel to the Assad government, forcing the government to buy more expensive uninsured jet fuel shipments in the future.[257]
Taking advantage of the increased role of the state as a result of the civil war, Bashar and his wife Asma have begun annexing Syria's economic assets from their loyalists, seeking to displace the old business elites and monopolise their direct control of the economy.Maher al-Assad, the brother of Bashar, has also become wealthy by overseeing the operations of Syria's state-sponsoredcaptagon drug industry and seizing much of the spoils of war. The ruling couple currently owns vast swathes of Syria's shipping, real estate, telecommunications and banking sectors.[258][259] Significant changes have been happening to Syrian economy since the government's confiscation campaigns launched in 2019, which involved major economic assets being transferred to the Presidential couple to project their power and influence. Particularly noteworthy dynamic has been the rise ofAsma al-Assad, who heads Syria's clandestine economic council and is thought to have become "a central funnel of economic power in Syria". Through her Syria Trust NGO, the backbone of her financial network, Asma vets the foreign aid coming to Syria; since the government authorises UN organisations only if it works under state agencies.[260]
Corruption has been rising sporadically in recent years, with Syria being considered the most corrupt country in theArab World.[261][262] As of 2022, Syria is the ranked second worst globally in theCorruption Perceptions Index.[263]
Hafez al-Assad's government was widely counted amongst the most repressive Arabdictatorships of the 20th century. As Bashar inherited his father's mantle, he sought to implement "authoritarian upgrading" by purging those from his father's generation and staffing the party and military with loyalist Alawite officers, further entrenching the sectarianism within the system.[264][265] While officially the Ba'athist government adheres to a strict secularist doctrine, in practice it has implemented sectarian engineering policies in the society to suppress dissent and monopolise its absolute power.[266]
"During Hafez-al-Assad's reign, he resorted to emphasising the sectarian identities that the previousBa'ath Party rejected; believing the only way to ensure stability was through building a trusted security force... Hafez pursued a strategy to "make the Alawite community a loyal monolith while keeping Syria's Sunni majority divided". Yet Syria became apolice state, enforcing stability through threat of brute force repression... Bashar had already followed in his father's footsteps, carefully manoeuvring his most loyal allies into the military-security apparatus, government ministries and theBa'ath party."
The regime has attempted to portray itself to the outside world as "the protector of minorities" and instills the fear of the majority rule in the society to mobilise loyalists from minorities.[268] Assad loyalist figures likeMichel Samaha have advocated sectarian mobilisation to defend the regime from what he labelled as the "sea ofSunnis". Assad regime has unleashed sectarian violence through private Alawite militias like theShabiha, particularly in Sunni areas. Alawite religious iconography and communal sentiments are common themes used byAlawite warrior-shaykhs who lead the Alawite militias; as justification to commit massacres, abductions and torture in opposition strongholds.[269] Various development policies adopted by the regime had followed a sectarian pattern. An urbanisation scheme implemented by the government in the city of Homs led to expulsions of thousands of Sunni residents during the 2000s, while Alawite majority areas were left intact.[270]
Even asSyrian Ba'athism absorbed diverse communal identities into the homogenous unifying discourse of the state; socio-political power became monopolised by Alawite loyalists. Despite officially adhering to non-confessionalism,Syrian Armed Forces have also been institutionally sectarianised. While the conscripts and lower-ranks are overwhelmingly non-Alawite, the higher ranks are packed by Alawite loyalists who effectively control the logistics and security policy. Elite units of the Syrian military such as theTiger Forces,Republican Guard,4th Armoured Division, etc. regarded by the government as crucial for its survival; are composed mostly of Alawites. Sunni officers are under constant surveillance by the secret police, with most of them being assigned with Alawite assistants who monitor their movements. Pro-regimeparamilitary groups such as theNational Defense Force are also organised around sectarian loyalty to the Ba'athist government. During theSyrian Revolution uprisings, theBa'athist government deployed a securitisation strategy that depended on sectarian mobilisation, unleashing violence on protestors and extensive crackdowns across the country, prompting opposition groups to turn to armed revolt. Syrian society was further sectarianised following theIranian intervention in the Syrian civil war, which witnessed numerousKhomeinist militant groups sponsored by Iran fight in the side of the Assad government.[271][267]
The Ba'athist government ruled Syria as a totalitarian state, policing every aspect of Syrian society until 2024.[272] The president made key decisions with counsel from a small number of security advisors, ministers, and senior members of the ruling Ba’ath Party, with scant regard for punishing, arresting, or prosecuting officials who violated human rights.[273] The surveillance system of theMukhabarat was pervasive, with the total number of agents working for its various branches estimated to be as high as 1:158 ratio with the civilian population. Security services shut down civil society organisations, curtailed freedom of movement within the country and banned non-Ba'athist political literature and symbols.[113][274] In 2010,Human Rights Watch published the report "A Wasted Decade" documenting repression during Assad's first decade ofemergency rule; marked by arbitrary arrests, censorship and discrimination againstSyrian Kurds.[274][275]
Billboard with a portrait of Bashar al-Assad and the text 'Syria is protected by God' on theold city wall of Damascus in 2006
Throughout the 2000s,Mukhabarat agents carried out routineabductions,arbitrary detentions andtorture of civilians. Numerousshow trials were conducted against dissidents, filling Syrian prisons with journalists and human rights activists. Members of Syria'sGeneral Intelligence Directorate had long enjoyed broad privileges to carry out extrajudicial actions and they have immunity from criminal offences. In 2008, Assad extended this immunity to other departments of security forces.[275] Human Rights groups, such asHuman Rights Watch andAmnesty International, have detailed how the Assad government'ssecret police tortured, imprisoned, and killed political opponents, and those who speak out against the government.[276][277] In addition, some 600 Lebanese political prisoners were thought to be held in government prisons since theSyrian occupation of Lebanon, with some held for as long as over 30 years.[278] From 2006, the Assad government expanded the use of travel bans against political dissidents.[279] In an interview withABC News in 2007, Assad stated: "We don't have such [things as] political prisoners," thoughThe New York Times reported the arrest of 30 Syrian political dissidents who were organising a joint opposition front in December 2007, with 3 members of this group considered to be opposition leaders being remanded in custody.[280]
The government also denied permission for human rights organisations and independent NGOs to work in the country.[275] In 2010, Syria bannedface veils at universities.[281][282] Following the protests of theSyrian revolution in 2011, Assad partially relaxed the veil ban.[283]
Demonstration inMontreal in solidarity with the people of Syria. The sign reads: "Stop torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners in Syria!"
Foreign Affairs journal released an editorial on the Syrian situation in the wake of the 2011 protests:[284]
During its decades of rule... the Assad family developed a strong political safety net by firmly integrating the military into the government. In 1970, Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, seized power after rising through the ranks of theSyrian armed forces, during which time he established a network of loyalAlawites by installing them in key posts. In fact, the military, ruling elite, andruthless secret police are so intertwined that it is now impossible to separate theAssad regime from the security establishment. Bashar al-Assad's threat to use force against protesters would be more plausible than Tunisia's or Egypt's were. So, unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, where a professionally trained military tended to play an independent role, the regime and its loyal forces have been able to deter all but the most resolute and fearless oppositional activists... At the same time, it is significantly different fromLibya, where the military, although brutal and loyal to the regime, is a more disorganized group of militant thugs than a trained and disciplined army.
Between 2011 and 2013, the state security apparatus was believed to have tortured and killed over 10,000civil activists,political dissidents,journalists,civil defense volunteers and those accused of treason and terror charges, as part of a campaign of deadly crackdown ordered by Assad.[285] In June 2023,UN General Assembly voted in favour of establishing an independent body to investigate the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands of missing civilians who have been forcibly disappeared, killed or languishing in Assad regime'sdungeons andtorture chambers. The vote was condemned by Russia, North Korea and Iran.[286][287][288]
Ba'athist Syria had long bannedKurdish language in schools and public institutions; and discrimination againstKurds steadily increased during the rule of Bashar al-Assad. State policy officially suppressed Kurdish culture; with more than 300,000 Syrian Kurds being rendered stateless. Kurdish grievances against state persecution eventually culminated in the2004 Qamishli Uprisings, which were crushed down violently after sending Syrian military forces. The ensuing crackdown resulted in the killings of more than 36 Kurds and injuring at least 160 demonstrators. More than 2000 civilians were arrested and tortured in government detention centres. Restrictions on Kurdish activities were further tightened following the Qamishli massacre, with theAssad regime virtually banning all Kurdish cultural gatherings and political activism under the charges of "inciting strife" or "weakening national sentiment". During 2005–2010,Human Rights Watch verified security crackdowns on at least 14Kurdish political and cultural gatherings.[275][274] In March 2008, Syrian military opened fire at a Kurdish gathering in Qamishli that marked Nowruz, killing three and injuring five civilians.[293]
On 22 September 2001, Assad decreed a Press Law that tightened government control over all literature printed or published in Syria; ranging from newspapers to books, pamphlets and periodicals. Publishers, writers, editors, distributors, journalists and other individuals accused of violating the Press Law are imprisoned or fined. Censorship has also been expanded into thecyberspace, and various websites are banned. Numerous bloggers and content creators have been arrested under various "national security" charges.[275]
Syria was ranked as the third most censored country in CPJ's 2012 report. Apart from restrictions for international journalists that prohibit their entry, domestic press is controlled by state agencies that promote Ba'athist ideology. From 2011, the Syrian government has issued a completemedia blackout and foreign correspondents were quickly detained, abducted or tortured. As a result, the outside world is able to know of situations happening inside Syria only through videos of independent civilian journalists. The Assad government has shut down internet coverage,mobile networks as well as telephone lines in areas under its control to prevent any news that has its attempts to monopolise information related to Syria.[299]
Crackdowns, ethnic cleansing, and forced disappearances
Thecrackdown ordered by Bashar al-Assad against Syrian protesters was the most ruthless of all military clampdowns in the entireArab Spring. As violence deteriorated and death toll mounted to the thousands; the European Union, Arab League and United States began imposing wide range of sanctions against Assad regime. By December 2011,United Nations had declared the situation in Syria to be a "civil war".[300] By this point, all the protestors and armedresistance groups had viewed the unconditional resignation of Bashar al-Assad as part of their core demands. In July 2012,Arab League held an emergency session demanding the "swift resignation" of Assad and promised "safe exit" if he accepted the offer.[301][302] Assad rebuffed the offers, instead seeking foreign military support from Iran and Russia to defend his embattled regime throughscorched-earth tactics, massacres, sieges, forced starvations, ethnic cleansing, etc.[303]
The crackdowns and extermination campaigns of Assad regime resulted in theSyrian refugee crisis; causing theforced displacement of 14 million Syrians, with around 7.2 million refugees.[304] This has made the Syrian refugee crisis the largestrefugee crisis in the world; andUNHCR High CommissionerFilippo Grandi has described it as "the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time and a continuing cause for suffering."[304][305]
Ethnic cleansing
Wounded civilians getting rushed to a hospital inAleppo
Eva Koulouriotis has described Bashar al-Assad as the "master ofethnic cleansing in the 21st century".[306] During the course of the civil war, Assad ordered depopulation campaigns throughout the country to re-shape its demography in favor of his regime and the military tactics have been compared to thepersecutions of the Bosnian war. Between 2011 and 2015,Ba'athist militias are reported to have committed 49 ethno-sectarianmassacres for the purpose of implementing its social engineering agenda in the country.Alawite loyalist militias known as theShabiha have been launched intoSunni villages and towns, perpetrating numerousanti-Sunni massacres. These include theHoula,Bayda and Baniyas massacres,Al-Qubeir massacre, Al-Hasawiya massacre, and others which have resulted in hundreds of deaths with hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing under threats of regime persecution andsexual violence. Pogroms and deportations were pronounced in central Syrian regions and Alawite majority coastal areas where the Syrian military and Hezbollah prioritise the establishment of strategic control by expelling Sunni residents and bringing in Iran-backed Shia militants.[307][308][306][309] In 2016, UN officials criticised Bashar al-Assad for pursuing demographic engineering and ethnic cleansing inDarayya district in Damascus under the guise of de-escalation deals.[310]
"The nature and extent of Assad's violence is strategic in design and effect. He is pursuing astrategy of terror,siege, anddepopulation in key areas, calculating that winning back the loyalty of much of theSunni middle class and underclass is highly unlikely and certainly not worth the resources and political capital. Better to level half the country than to give it over to theopposition."
Syrian government forces have pursued mass-killings of civilian populations as part of its war strategy throughout the conflict and is responsible for inflicting more than 90% of thetotal civilian deaths in the Syrian civil war.[312] The UN estimates a minimum of 306,000 civilian deaths occurred between 2011 and 2021.[119][120] As of 2022, the total death toll has risen to approximately 580,000.[313] An additional 154,000 civilians have beenforcibly disappeared or subject toarbitrary detentions across Syria between 2011 and 2023. As of 2023, more than 135,000 individuals are beingtortured, incarcerated or dead inBa'athist prison networks, including thousands ofwomen andchildren.[314]
Since 2011, the Assad regime has arrested and detained children without trial until the age of 18, after which they are transferred to Syrian military field courts and killed. A 2024 investigative report by the Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit (SIRAJ) identified 24 Syrian children who were forcibly disappeared, had their assets confiscated, detained and later killed after they reached the age of 18. The report, based on inside sources within the Assad government, interviews with victims' families, and public sources, estimated that more than 6,000 detainees under the age of 18 were sentenced to death in theSednaya Prison and an Assadist military field court inAl-Dimas between 2014 and 2017, citing eyewitness accounts of an insider within the Ba'athist military police.[315][316]
Stephen Rapp, theU.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, stated in 2014 that the crimes committed by Assad are the worst seen since those ofNazi Germany.[323] In March 2015, Rapp further stated that the case against Assad is "much better" than those againstSlobodan Milošević of Serbia orCharles Taylor of Liberia, both of whom were indicted by international tribunals.[324] Charles Lister, Director of the Countering Terror and Extremism Program atMiddle East Institute, describes Bashar al-Assad as the "21st century's biggest war criminal".[193]
In a February 2015 interview with theBBC, Assad dismissed accusations that theSyrian Arab Air Force usedbarrel bombs as "childish", claiming that his forces have never used these types of "barrel" bombs and responded with a joke about not using "cooking pots" either.[325] TheBBC Middle East editor conducting the interview,Jeremy Bowen, later described Assad's statement regarding barrel bombs as "patently not true".[326][327] As soon asdemonstrations arose in 2011–2012, Bashar al-Assad opted to implement the "Samson option", the characteristic approach of theNeo-ba'athist regime since the era of Hafez al-Assad; wherein protests were violently suppressed and demonstrators were shot and fired at directly by the armed forces. However, unlike Hafez; Bashar had even less loyalty and was politically fragile, exacerbated by alienation of the majority of the population. As a result, Bashar chose to crack down on dissent far more comprehensively and harshly than his father; and a mere allegation of collaboration was reason enough to get assassinated.[328]
The Father had a mind and the Son has a loss of reason. How could the army use its force and the security apparatus with all its might to destroy Syria because of a protest against the mistakes of one of your security officials. The father would act differently. Father Hafez hit Hama after he encircled it, warned and then hit Hama after a long siege... But his son is different. On the subject of Daraa, Bashar gave instructions to open fire on the demonstrators.[331]
Human rights organisations and criminal investigators have documented Assad's war crimes and sent it to theInternational Criminal Court for indictment.[332] Since Syria is not a party to theRome Statute,International Criminal Court requires authorisation from theUN Security Council to send Bashar al-Assad to tribunal. As this gets consistentlyvetoed by Assad's primary backerRussia, ICC prosecutions have not transpired. On the other hand, courts in various European countries have begun prosecuting and convicting senior Ba'ath party members,Syrian military commanders andMukhabarat officials charged with war crimes.[333] In September 2015, France began an inquiry into Assad forcrimes against humanity, with French Foreign MinisterLaurent 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".[334]
In February 2016, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria,Paulo Pinheiro, told reporters: "The mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination as a crime against humanity." The UN Commission reported finding "unimaginable abuses", including women and children as young as seven perishing while being held by Syrian authorities. The report also stated: "There are reasonable grounds to believe that high-ranking officers – including the heads of branches and directorates – commanding these detention facilities, those in charge of the military police, as well as their civilian superiors, knew of the vast number of deaths occurring in detention facilities ... yet did not take action to prevent abuse, investigate allegations or prosecute those responsible".[335]
In March 2016, theU.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs led byNew Jersey Rep.Chris Smith called on the Obama administration to create a war crimestribunal to investigate and prosecute violations "whether committed by the officials of the Government of Syria or other parties to the civil war".[336]
In June 2018, Germany's chief prosecutor issued an international arrest warrant for one of Assad's most senior military officials,Jamil Hassan.[337] Hassan is the head of Syria's powerfulAir Force Intelligence Directorate. Detention centers run by Air Force Intelligence are among the most notorious in Syria, and thousands are believed to have died because oftorture or neglect. Charges filed against Hassan claim he had command responsibility over the facilities and therefore knew of the abuse. The move against Hassan marked an important milestone of prosecutors trying to bring senior members of Assad's inner circle to trial for war crimes.
On 15 November 2023, France issued an arrest warrant against Assad over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.[339] In May 2024, French anti-terrorism prosecutors requested the Paris appeals court to consider revoking Assad's arrest warrant, asserting his absolute immunity as a serving head of state.[340] On 26 June 2024, the Paris appeals court determined that the international arrest warrant issued by France against Assad for alleged complicity in war crimes during the Syrian civil war remains valid. This decision was confirmed by attorneys involved in the case, who said the ruling marked the first instance where a national court acknowledged that the personal immunity of a serving head of state is not absolute.[340] On 25 July 2025, the FrenchCourt of Cassation annulled Assad's arrest warrant, saying that he enjoyedpresidential immunity at the time of the attack, but allowed the investigations against him to continue and new warrants to be issued against him.[341]
On 20 January 2025, a French court issued an arrest warrant against Assad for the 2017 killing of 59-year old dual French-Syrian national Salah Abou Nabout in a bombing inDeraa.[22] On 2 September 2025, a French court issued an arrest warrant against Assad for the 2012 killings of journalistsMarie Colvin andRemi Ochlik inHoms.[24] On 27 September 2025, a Syrian court issued an arrest warrant for Assad over the2011 Daraa incidents, paving the way for its circulation throughInterpol and international prosecution. The arrest warrant cited charges such as premeditated murder, torture leading to death, and deprivation of liberty, and was based on lawsuits submitted by the families of victims inDaraa governorate over events that occurred in November 2011.[342]
TheSyrian military has deployed chemical warfare as a systematic military strategy in theSyrian civil war, and is estimated to have committed over 300chemical attacks, targeting civilian populations throughout the course of the conflict.[343][344] Investigation conducted by theGPPi research institute documented 336 confirmed attacks involving chemical weapons in Syria between 23 December 2012 and 18 January 2019. The study attributed 98% of the total verified chemical attacks to the Assad's regime. Almost 90% of the attacks had occurred after theGhouta chemical attack in August 2013.[345][346]
Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and OPCW member state in October 2013, and there are currently three OPCW missions with UN mandates to investigate chemical weapons issues in Syria. These are the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) to verify Syriandeclarations of CW Programme;OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) tasked to identify the chemical attacks and type of weapons used; and the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) which investigates the perpetrators of the chemical attacks. The conclusions are submitted to theUnited Nations bodies.[347]
In April 2021, Syria was suspended from OPCW through the public vote of member states, for not co-operating with the body's Investigation Identification Team (IIT) and violating theChemical Weapons Convention.[348][349][350] Findings of another investigation report published the OPCW-IIT in July 2021 concluded that the Syrian regime had engaged in confirmed chemical attacks at least 17 times, out of the reported 77 chemical weapon attacks attributed to Assadist forces.[351][352] As of March 2023, independent United Nations inquiry commissions have confirmed at least nine chemical attacks committed by forces loyal to theAssad government.[353][354]
Members of the Syrian community inHanover protest against Bashar al-Assad on the second anniversary ofGhouta chemical attacks, 21 August 2015.
The deadliest chemical attack have been the Ghouta chemical attacks, when Assad government forces launched thenerve agentsarin into civilian areas during its brutalSiege of Eastern Ghouta in early hours of 21 August 2013. Thousands of infected and dying victims flooded the nearby hospitals, showing symptoms such as foaming, body convulsions and other neurotoxic symptoms. An estimated 1,100–1,500 civilians; including women and children, are estimated to have been killed in the attacks.[355][356][357] The attack was internationally condemned and represented the deadliest use of chemical weapons since theIran-Iraq war.[358][359] On 21 August 2022, United States government marked the ninth anniversary of Ghouta Chemical attacks stating: "United States remembers and honors the victims and survivors of the Ghouta attack and the many other chemical attacks we assess the Assad regime has launched. We condemn in the strongest possible terms any use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, under any circumstances... The United States calls on the Assad regime to fully declare and destroy itschemical weapons program... and for the regime to allow theOrganisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' Declaration Assessment Team."[360]
In a speech delivered at theBa'ath party's central committee meeting in December 2023, Bashar al-Assad claimed that there was "no evidence" of the killings of six million Jews duringthe Holocaust. Emphasising that Jews were not the solevictims of Nazi extermination campaigns, Assad alleged that the Holocaust was "politicized" byAllied powers to facilitate the mass-deportation ofEuropean Jews to Palestine, and that it was used as an excuse to justify the creation of Israel. Assad also accused the U.S. government of financially and militarily sponsoring therise of Nazism during theinter-war period.[368][369]
National Democratic Rally (NDR) was an older left-wing opposition coalition ofsocialist parties formed in 1980, but banned by the Baathist government. NDR was active during the nationwide protests of the 1980s and theDamascus Spring of the 2000s.[374] During the early years of the civil war, theDruze in Syria primarily sought to remain neutral, "seeking to stay out of the conflict".Druze-Israeli politician Majalli Wahabi claimed in 2016 that over half support the Assad government despite its relative weakness in Druze areas.[375] The "Men of Dignity" movement, which had sought to remain neutral and to defend Druze areas,[376] blamed the government after its leaderSheikh Wahid al-Balous was assassinated and organised large scale protests which left six government security personnel dead.[377] Druze community became fervently opposed to the Assad government over time and has been vocal about its opposition to increasing Iranian interference in Syria.[378] In August 2023, mass protests against Assad regime erupted in the Druze-majority city ofSuweida,[379][380] which eventually spread to otherregions of Southern Syria.[380][381][382] Druze cleric Hikmat al-Hajiri, religious leader of Syrian Druze community, has declared war against "Iranian invasion of the country".[378] SyrianSufi scholarMuhammad al-Yaqoubi, a fervent opponent of both the Ba'athist regime andIslamic State group, has described Assad's rule as a "reign of terror" that wreaked havoc and enormous misery on the Syrian populace.[383]The regime's support base consisted ofBa'athist loyalists who dominate Syrian politics,trade unions, youth organisations,students unions,bureaucracy andarmed forces.[384]Ba'ath party institutions and its political activities form the "vital pillars of regime survival". Family networks of politicians in the Ba'ath party-ledNational Progressive Front (NPF) and businessmen loyal to the Assad family form another pole of support. Electoral listing is supervised by Ba'ath party leadership which expels candidates not deemed "sufficiently loyal".[385][386][387] Although it has been reported at various stages of the Syrian civil war thatreligious minorities such as theAlawites andChristians in Syria favour the Assad government because of its secularism,[388][389] opposition exists amongAssyrian Christians who have claimed that the Assad government seeks to use them as "puppets" and deny their distinct ethnicity, which is non-Arab.[390] Although Syria'sAlawite community forms Bashar al-Assad's core support base and dominate themilitary andsecurity apparatus,[391][392] in April 2016,BBC News reported that Alawite leaders released a document seeking to distance themselves from Assad.[393]
Military situation, November 2023 – November 2024
Kurdish Supreme Committee was a coalition of 13 Kurdish political parties opposed to Assad regime. Before its dissolution in 2015, the committee consisted ofKNC andPYD.[373]Circassians in Syria have also become strong opponents of the regime as Ba'athist crackdowns and massacres across Syria intensified viciously; and members of Circassian ethnic minority have attempted to escape Syria, fearing persecution.[394] In 2014, the ChristianSyriac Military Council, the largest Christian organisation in Syria, allied with the Free Syrian Army opposed to Assad,[395] joining other Syrian Christian militias such as theSutoro who had joined the Syrian opposition against the Assad government.[396]Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by hisnom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, commander of theTahrir al-Sham rebel militia, condemned Assad regime for converting Syria "into an ongoing earthquake the past 12 years", in the context of the2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes.[397]
In June 2014, Assad won a disputedpresidential election held in government-controlled areas (and boycotted in opposition-held areas[398] and Kurdish areas governed by theDemocratic Union Party[399]) with 88.7% of the vote. Turnout was estimated to be 73.42% of eligible voters, including those in rebel-controlled areas.[400] The regime's electoral commission also disqualified millions of Syrian citizens displaced outside the country from voting.[401] Independent observers and academic scholarship unanimously describe the event as asham election organised to legitimise Assad's rule.[402][403][404] In his inauguration ceremony, Bashar denounced the opposition as "terrorists" and "traitors"; while attacking theWest for backing what he described as the "fakeArab spring".[405]
Times of Israel reported that although various individuals interviewed in a "Sunni-dominated, middle-class neighborhood of central Damascus" exhibited fealty for Assad; it was not possible to discern the actual support for the regime due to the ubiquitous influence of thesecret police in the society.[406] Ba'athist dissidentAbdul Halim Khaddam who had served asSyrian Vice President during the tenures of both Hafez and Bashar, disparaged Bashar al-Assad as a pawn in Iran'simperial scheme. Contrasting the power dynamics that existed under both the autocrats, Khaddam stated:
[Bashar] is not like his father.. He never allowed the Iranians to intervene in Syrian affairs.. During Hafez Assad's time, an Iranian delegation arrived in Syria and attempted to convert some of the Muslim Alawite Syrians to Shia Islam... Assad ordered his minister of foreign Affairs to summon the Iranian ambassador to deliver an ultimatum: The delegation has 24 hours to exit Syria.... They had no power [during Hafez's rule], unlike Bashar who gave them [Iranians] power and control.[407][408]
International opposition
Anti-Assad demonstrations held inParis, 14 December 2016
Georgia suspended all relations with Syria following Bashar al-Assad'srecognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, condemning his government as a "Russian-manipulated regime" that supportedRussian occupation and "ethnic cleansing".[g] Following Assad's strong backing ofRussian invasion of Ukraine and recognition of the breakaway separatist republics,Ukraine cut off all diplomatic relations with Syria in June 2022. Describing Assad's policies as "worthless",Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to expand furthersanctions against Syria.[424][425] In March 2023,National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine put into effect a range of sanctions targeting 141 firms and 300 individuals linked to Assad regime, Russian weapons manufacturers and Iranian dronemakers. This was days after Assad's visit toMoscow, wherein he justifiedRussian invasion of Ukraine as a fight against "old and new Nazis". Bashar al-Assad, Prime MinisterHussein Arnous and Foreign MinisterFaisal Mikdad were amongst the individuals who were sanctioned.[h] Sanctions also involved freezing of all Syrian state properties in Ukraine, curtailment of monetary transactions, termination of economic commitments and recision of all official Ukrainian awards.[429] Syria formally broke its diplomatic ties to Ukraine on 20 July, citing theprinciple of reciprocity.[431]
Bashar al-Assad is widely criticised by left-wing activists and intellectuals world-wide for appropriating leftist ideologies and itssocialist,progressive slogans as a cover for his own family rule and to empower a loyalist clique of elites at the expense of ordinary Syrians. His close alliance with clergy-ruledKhomeinist, Iran and its sectarian militant networks; while simultaneously pursuing a policy of locking up left-wing critics ofAssad family has been subject to heavy criticism.[437]
TheEgyptian branch of theIraqi Ba'ath movement has declared its strong support to theSyrian revolution; denouncing Ba'athist Syria as a repressive dictatorship controlled by the "Assad gang". It has attacked Assad family's Ba'athist credentials, accusing theSyrian Ba'ath party of acting as the borderguards ofIsrael ever since its overthrowal of theBa'athist National Command during the1966 coup d'état. Describing Bashar al-Assad as a disgraceful person for inviting hostile powers likeIran to Syria, Egyptian Ba'athists have urged theSyrian revolutionaries to unite in their efforts to overthrow the Assad regime and resist foreign imperialism.[438]
Describing Assad's regime as amafia state that thrives on corruption and sectarianism,Lebanese socialist academicGilbert Achcar stated:
Bashar Assad's cousin became the richest man in the country, controlling – it is widely believed – over half of the economy. And that's only one member of the ruling clan... The clan functions as a real mafia, and has been ruling the country for several decades. This constitutes the deep root of the explosion, in combination with the fact that the Syrian regime is one of the most despotic in the region. Compared to Assad's Syria,Mubarak's Egypt was a beacon of democracy and political freedom!... What is specific to this regime is that Assad's father has reshaped and reconstructed the state apparatus, especially its hard nucleus – the armed forces – in order to create a Pretorian guard for itself. The army, especially its elite forces, is tied to the regime itself in various ways, most prominently through the use of sectarianism. Even people who had never heard of Syria before know now that the regime is based on one minority in the country – about 10% of the population; theAlawites.[439]
TheProgressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Lebanon has taken an anti-Assad stance and organised mass-protests in support of the Syrian revolution. In August 2012, PSP publicly denounced the Assad government as a "killing machine" engaged in slaughtering Syrian people. PSP leader Ayman Kamaleddine demanded the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador from Lebanon, describing him as "the representative of the murderer regime in Lebanon".[citation needed]
International support
Left-wing
Left-wing support for Assad had been split since the start of the Syrian civil war;[440][needs update] the Assad government was accused of cynically manipulatingsectarian identity andanti-imperialism to continue its worst activities.[441]
In 2017, then-DemocraticcongresswomanTulsi Gabbard met with then-president Bashar al-Assad on an unannounced visit to Syria.[442] The visit was the first by a U.S. lawmaker since 2011,[443] and made under a travel warning issued by theUnited States Department of State, which continues to warn U.S. citizens against all travel to the country.[444] Gabbard did not consult with theHouse speaker or State Department before meeting with Assad.[444] The meeting came after Gabbard introduced legislation that would, in her words, "end our country's illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government."[444] She said that Assad is "a brutaldictator. Just likeSaddam Hussein. Just likeGadhafi in Libya. The reason that I'm so outspoken on this issue of ending these wastefulregime-change wars is because I have seen firsthand this high human cost of war and the impact that it has on my fellow brothers and sisters in uniform."[445] Following her visit to Syria, Gabbard expressed doubts that the Assad regime was behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria.[442][446] Gabbard has continued to defend her comments, and in 2019 stated that Assad was "not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States".[442]
Bashar al-Assad's regime has received support from prominentwhite nationalist,neo-Nazi andfar-right figures in Europe, who were attracted by his "war on terror" discourse againstIslamists during the period ofEuropean refugee crisis. Assad's bombings of Syrian cities are admired in theIslamophobic discourse of far-right circles, which considers Muslims as a civilisational enemy. Americanwhite supremacists often praise Assad as an authoritarian bulwark against what they view as the forces of "Islamic extremism" andglobalism; and several pro-Assad slogans were chanted in the neo-NaziUnite the Right rally held inCharlottesville in 2017.[i][458]
Nick Griffin, the former leader of theBritish National Party (BNP), was formerly an official ambassador and guest of the Syrian government;[459] due to public controversy, the Assad government publicly disassociated itself from him after his trip to Syria in 2014.[458]
In order to promote their image and media-portrayal overseas, Bashar al-Assad and his wifeAsma al-Assad hired U.S. and UK basedPR firms and consultants.[460] In particular, these secured photoshoots for Asma al-Assad with fashion and celebrity magazines, includingVogue's March 2011 "A Rose in the Desert".[461][462] These firms includedBell Pottinger andBrown Lloyd James, with the latter being paid $5,000 a month for their services.[460][463]
At the outset of the Syrian civil war, Syrian government networks were hacked by the groupAnonymous, revealing that an ex-Al Jazeera journalist had been hired to advise Assad on how to manipulate the public opinion of the U.S. Among the advice was the suggestion to compare the popular uprising against the regime to theOccupy Wall Street protests.[464] In a separate email leak several months later by theSupreme Council of the Syrian Revolution, which were published byThe Guardian, it was revealed that Assad's consultants had coordinated with an Iranian government media advisor.[465] In March 2015, an expanded version of the aforementioned leaks was handed to the LebaneseNOW News website and published the following month.[466]
After the Syrian civil war began, the Assads started asocial media campaign which included building a presence on Facebook, YouTube, and most notablyInstagram.[463] A Twitter account for Assad was reportedly activated; however, it remained unverified.[467] This resulted in much criticism, and was described byThe Atlantic Wire as "a propaganda campaign that ultimately has made the [Assad] family look worse".[468] The Assad government has also allegedly arrested activists for creating Facebook groups that the government disapproved of,[147] and has appealed directly to Twitter to remove accounts it disliked.[469] The social media campaign, as well as the previously leaked emails, led to comparisons withHannah Arendt'sA Report on the Banality of Evil byThe Guardian,The New York Times and theFinancial Times.[470][471][472]
In October 2014, 27,000 photographs depicting torture committed by the Assad government were put on display at theU.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.[473][474] Lawyers were hired to write a report on the images by the British law firmCarter-Ruck, which in turn was funded by theGovernment of Qatar.[475]In November 2014, theQuilliam Foundation reported that a propaganda campaign, which they claimed had the "full backing of Assad", spread false reports about the deaths of Western-born jihadists in order to deflect attention from the government's alleged war crimes. Using a picture of a Chechen fighter from theSecond 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.[476]
In 2015,Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war in support of Assad, and on 21 October 2015, Assad flew to Moscow and met with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who said regarding the civil war: "this decision can be made only by the Syrian people. Syria is a friendly country. And we are ready to support it not only militarily but politically as well."[477]
Assad is anAlawite Muslim.[478] He has performed thehajj pilgrimage twice, in 1999 and in 2000.[479] He speaks fluent English and conversational French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyah school in Damascus.[480]
In December 2000, Assad marriedAsma Akhras, a British citizen of Syrian origin fromActon, London.[482][483] In 2001, Asma gave birth to their first child, a son namedHafez. Hafez graduated fromMoscow State University in the November 2024 with adoctorate innumber theory.[484] Their daughter Zein was born in 2003, followed by their son Karim in 2004.[39] On 23 December 2024, it was reported that Asma al-Assad had filed for divorce; the Russian government denied this.[485][486]
Assad is under 24-hour protection from theFSB. He reportedly lived in apartments under theFour Seasons Hotel, and in theFederation Tower, before being moved to Rublyovka.[487]
Highest rank in the Order of the Legion of Honor in the Republic of France. Returned by Assad on 20 April 2018[488] after the opening of a revocation process by thePresident of the Republic,Emmanuel Macron, on 16 April 2018.
Revoked on 18 March 2023, as part of sanctions issued byUkrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy which revoked all previous Ukrainian state awards to members of the Assad government.[429]
^Following thefall of the Assad regime, al-Sharaa served as Syria'sde factoleader as the emir of theHay'at Tahrir al-Sham, general commander and head of the new Syrian administration until 29 January 2025, when he was appointed President of Syria by the Syrian General Command.[1][2][3]
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^Rudy Jaafar andMaria J. Stephan. (2009). "Lebanon's Independence Intifada: How an Unarmed Insurrection Expelled Syrian Forces", in Maria J. Stephan (ed.),Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169–185.
^Sadiki, Larbi; Abbas, Akeel (2015). "31: Deconstructing Despotic Legacies in the Arab Spring".Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring. New York: Routledge. pp. 412, 413.ISBN978-0-415-52391-2.In the nearly 50-minute speech, President al-Assad gave his interpretation to the protests in Syria and other Arab countries, almost mocking the Arab Spring, invoking the outside regional and international conspirators and their inside 'agents' as the evil 'them'.. Resorting to conspiratorial attribution to explain the 'real' reasons behind the protests in Syria, al-Assad bestowed a pathological inevitability on the actions of political opposition, where the oppressive political system he heads turns into a noble victim, recipient of foreign illnesses. [Assad speech] "Conspiracies are like germs: They procreate at every moment everywhere; they cannot be annihilated, but the immunity of the body can be strengthened against them." … dissent loses its political meaning, or moral justification, acquiring 'othering' essence when the president places it in the dismissive context of the 'fitna'.
^Sadiki, Larbi; Abbas, Akeel (2015). "31: Deconstructing Despotic Legacies in the Arab Spring".Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring. New York: Routledge. pp. 412, 413.ISBN978-0-415-52391-2.
^Oweis, Khaled Yacoub (18 May 2011)."U.S. imposes sanctions on Syria's Assad".Reuters.Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved12 March 2015.The U.S. move, announced by the Treasury Department, freezes any of the Syrian officials' assets that are in the United States or otherwise fall within U.S. jurisdiction and generally bars U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with them.
^ab"Bashar Assad may be weaker than he thinks".The Economist. 16 October 2014.Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved16 October 2014.In Latakia and Tartus, two coastal cities near the Alawite heartland, posters of missing soldiers adorn the walls. When IS took over four government bases in the east of the country this summer, slaughtering dozens of soldiers and displaying some of their heads on spikes in Raqqa, IS's stronghold, families started to lose faith in the government. A visitor to the region reports hearing one man complain: 'We're running out of sons to give them.'
^Flores, Reena (2 May 2015)."Flash Points: Is Syria's Assad losing power?".CBS News.Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved3 May 2015.'a lot of suspicion within the regime itself about who's doing what and if folks are leaving.' [...] 'These are signs that I think demonstrate a bit of weakness and instability in the regime that you haven't seen in recent months,' he said. He cites the waning support from the nation's minority Alawite community as one of these important shifts.
^Harel, Amos; Cohen, Gili; Khoury, Jack (6 May 2015)."Syrian rebel victories stretch Assad's forces".Haaretz.Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved6 May 2015.There have also been increasing reports of Assad relatives, businessmen and high-ranking members of the Alawite community fleeing Damascus for the coastal city of Latakia, or other countries, after transferring large sums of money to banks in Lebanon, eastern Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
^Karkouti, Mustapha (9 May 2015)."Time to reconsider 'Life after Al Assad'".Gulf News. Retrieved10 May 2015.[The] reality on the ground can't be more clear as the population in the regime-controlled parts of Syria are preparing for life after the Al Assad dynasty. According to information received by this author, many businessmen and financiers who flourished under the regime have successfully moved huge amounts of money and capital to neighbouring Lebanon. Some of these funds are now known to have been secretly deposited in Europe.
^Sherlock, Ruth; Malouf, Carol (11 May 2015)."Bashar al-Assad's spy chief arrested over Syria coup plot".The Daily Telegraph.Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved12 May 2015.Mamlouk had also used a businessman from Aleppo as an intermediary to contact Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar's uncle, who has lived abroad exile since he was accused of seeking to mount a coup in Syria in the 1980s.
^Ashraf Allam; Salah Saber (2019).Assad's Survival: The Symbol Of Resisting The Arab Spring. Alexandria, Egypt: Lamar. pp. 26–27.ISBN978-977-85412-3-6.
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^Ashraf Allam; Salah Saber (2019). "The domestic structure of the regime".Assad's Survival: The Symbol Of Resisting The Arab Spring. Alexandria, Egypt: Lamar. pp. 27–30.ISBN978-977-85412-3-6.Because he lacks his father's leadership skills... Bashar may settle for consensus among his junta of Alawi officers... When Bashar assumed office he attempted to consolidate power through 'authoritarian upgrading'.. However, the conservative military establishment and senior members of the regime were not favorable to Bashar's reforms, which forced Bashar to retire such senior personnel in order to further consolidate his power. But Bashar struggled to appoint new and loyal staff, his Ba'athist regime became increasingly like a sectarian family clan
^"Flight of Icarus? The PYD's Precarious Rise in Syria"(PDF). International Crisis Group. 8 May 2014. p. 23. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 20 February 2016. Retrieved4 October 2014.The regime aims to compel people to take refuge in their sectarian and communitarian identities; to split each community into competing branches, dividing those who support it from those who oppose it
^Meuse, Alison (18 April 2015)."Syria's Minorities: Caught Between Sword Of ISIS And Wrath of Assad". NPR.Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved19 April 2015.Karim Bitar, a Middle East analyst at Paris think tank IRIS [...] says [...] 'Minorities are often used as a shield by authoritarian regimes, who try to portray themselves as protectors and as a bulwark'
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^Ashraf Allam; Salah Saber (2019). "The domestic structure of the regime".Assad's Survival: The Symbol Of Resisting The Arab Spring. Alexandria, Egypt: Lamar. pp. 29–38.ISBN978-977-85412-3-6.
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^"Flight of Icarus? The PYD's Precarious Rise in Syria"(PDF). International Crisis Group. 8 May 2014. p. 23. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 20 February 2016. Retrieved4 October 2014.The regime aims to compel people to take refuge in their sectarian and communitarian identities; to split each community into competing branches, dividing those who support it from those who oppose it
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Further reading
Abboud, Samer (2015).Syria (Hot Spots in Global Politics). Polity.ISBN978-0-7456-9797-0.
Belhadj, Souhaïl (2013).La Syrie de Bashar Al-Asad : Anatomie d'un régime autoritaire [Bashar's Syria: Anatomy of an Authoritarian Regime] (in French). Belin.ISBN978-2-7011-6467-0.
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