Ribal al-Assad (Arabic:ريبال الأسد; born 4 June 1975) is a Syrian businessman and political activist. He is the founder and director of theOrganisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria (ODFS) and the chairman and founder of theIman Foundation.
Ribal al-Assad was born in Damascus, the 13th of 16 siblings. He is the son ofRifaat al-Assad and his third wife Line Al-Khayer, sister-in-law of the lateSaudiking Abdullah bin Abdulaziz,[1] and is thus a member of theAssad family. His father, Rifaat al-Assad, a younger brother of PresidentHafez al-Assad, was a security chief and commander of theDefense Companies, who was responsible for the1982 Hama massacre. After attempting a coup d'état, he and his family went into exile inFrance, then the UK. Ribal, at the age of 9, and his family then moved toParis, where he continued to live until the age of 16. At the age of 16, al-Assad moved to the United States and began high school in New York andHouston, before attending university inBoston. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the InterAmerican University, New York, US and an MA from theUniversity of Leicester, United Kingdom.[2]
In 2006, al-Assad became director of the London Bureau of theArab News Network (ANN), a family owned television channel founded in 1997. After he left ANN, he founded the Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria (ODFS) in 2009 and became its director. The organization did not gain prominence until 2010, whenRobert Fisk ofThe Independent interviewed Ribal al-Assad. Of his cousin,Bashar al-Assad, Ribal said: "He is still governing under the ghost of his father. Each person in Syria has an interest in the secret service. Bashar should have declared national unity as soon as he took over. He did things bit by bit, with internet cafes and so on. But it was not enough. There was no real change."[3]
Al-Assad also appears from time to time on TV and in the print media as a commentator on politics and current events.[4][5][6][7]
Ribal has been critical[8] of theSyrian National Council since its inception. He said it has been overwhelmingly made up of members of theMuslim Brotherhood, who were not elected through a democratic process but hand-picked by Turkey and Qatar. He has also been critical of theFree Syria Army (saying it was made of Islamist extremist groups) and its Supreme Military Council (saying it was exclusively made up of Salafi extremist groups).
After thefall of the Assad regime in 2024, al-Assad voiced skepticism regarding the takeover by Syrian rebels.[9]
Ribal al-Assad’s work as Chairman of theIman Foundation has focused on promoting interfaith and inter cultural dialogue and challenging extremism across the world. The organisation is not-for-profit and is committed to "promoting inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, intra-religious dialogue and challenging extremism and promoting mainstream voices".[10]