Bashar al Assad
 Bashar al-Assad     | |||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Bashar Hafez al-Assad 1965-09-11 Damascus, Syria | ||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Damascus University | ||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||||||||||||||
| Children | • Hafez Zein • Karim | ||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Asma al-Assad | ||||||||||||||||
| Party | Syrian Ba'ath Party | ||||||||||||||||
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Bashar al-Assad (born 11 September 1965) is the 19th and current President of Syria, holding the office since 17 July 2000. He is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Regional Secretary of the party's branch in Syria. He is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000.
Contents
Medical background
Born and raised in Damascus, Assad graduated from the medical school of Damascus University in 1988, and started to work as a doctor in the Syrian Army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London, specialising in ophthalmology. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel al-Assad died in a car crash, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. He entered the military academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998.
President
On 10 July 2000, Assad was elected as President, succeeding his father, who died in office a month prior. In the 2000 and subsequent 2007 elections, he received 99.7% and 97.6% support, respectively, in referendums on his leadership.[1][2][3]
On 16 July 2014, Assad was sworn in for another seven-year term after taking 88.7% of votes in the first contested presidential election in Ba'athist Syria's history.[4][5][6] The election was criticised by media outlets as "tightly controlled" and without independent election monitors, while an international delegation led by allies of Assad issued a statement asserting that the election was "free, fair and transparent".[7][8][9] The Assad government describes itself as secular,[10] while some experts claim that the government exploits sectarian tensions in the country and relies upon the Alawite minority to remain in power.[11][12]
Insurgency
Once seen by the international community as a potential reformer, the United States, the European Union, and the majority of the Arab League called for Assad's resignation from the presidency after he allegedly ordered crackdowns and military sieges on Arab Spring protesters, which led to the Syrian Civil War.[13][14][15] During the Syrian Civil War, an inquiry by the United Nations reported finding evidence which implicated Assad in war crimes.[16] In June 2014, Assad was included in a list of war crimes indictments of government officials and rebels handed to the International Criminal Court.[17] Assad has rejected allegations of war crimes, and criticised the American-led intervention in Syria for attempting regime change.[18][19] After the election of Donald Trump, the priority of the United States concerning Assad was initially not to force him out of power, but this policy quickly reversed in the wake of the 2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.[20][21]
A Document by Bashar al Assad
| Title | Document type | Publication date | Subject(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on 20 August 2017 to the Syrian Diplomatic Corps | Speech | 31 August 2017 | Israel Iran Russia Turkey Vladimir Putin China Syria Donald Trump Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | The US President is not the maker of policies, but the executor. Therefore, the “Deep State” in the United States does not govern in partnership with the President, but leaves him a small margin. |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Absolute folly for Britain to get involved in Syria | Article | 1 March 2018 | Leo McKinstry | Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former soldier, has demanded: “Britain must come to Syria’s aid” and condemned those who oppose “military intervention”. |
| Document:Destroying Syria | Article | 23 January 2018 | Philip Giraldi | Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi says the United States has zero evidence on the Syrian conflict. Someone should remind the President that similar scenarios did not turn out very well in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. |
| Document:Ed Miliband’s decision to oppose military action against Syria is an action of statesmanship of which Britons will be proud | Article | 28 August 2013 | Michael Meacher | It is all very well to rush to war in a surge of moral outrage, it is quite another to spell out clearly what are the war objectives and how exactly they are to be achieved. |
| Document:Monbiot is not only a hypocrite, but a bully too | Article | 12 January 2018 | Jonathan Cook | It is time for George Monbiot’s legion of supporters to call him out. Not only is he a hypocrite, but he is becoming an increasingly dangerous one! |
| Document:Pictures resurface showing US Secretary John Kerry and President Assad dining in Syria together | Article | 3 September 2013 | Heather Saul | John Kerry's volte-face: Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region (2009). President Assad is a "thug" like Adolf Hitler (2013). |
| Document:President Bashar al Assad - Interview 17 June 2013 | interview | 17 June 2013 | FAZ | An interview with Syrian President Basher al-Assad |
| Document:President Bashar al Assad - Interview 3 March 2013 | interview | 3 March 2013 | Sunday Times editorial staff | |
| Document:The Trump Administration’s Syria Gas Attack Narrative Continues to Unravel | Article | 18 April 2017 | Michael Krieger | United States Government: "They Lied About Iraq; They Lied About Libya; They're Lying About Syria." |
| Document:Trump said to deprecate Netanyahu's intention to bump off Assad | Article | 1 September 2017 | Eric Zuesse | Better wait until my fundamentalist VP is in place, Benny boy! |
| Document:Why Tony is right to entertain Assad | Article | 17 December 2002 | Rod Liddle | Bashar al Assad became the first Syrian leader to visit the United Kingdom in 2002. |
References
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{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ Meuse, Alison (18 April 2015). "Syria's Minorities: Caught Between Sword Of ISIS And Wrath of Assad". NPR. Retrieved 19 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 against radical Islam."
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{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ King, Esther (2 November 2016). "Assad denies responsibility for Syrian war". Politico. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
The Syrian president maintained he was fighting to preserve his country and criticised the West for intervening. “Good government or bad, it’s not your mission” to change it, he said.
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). - ↑ Staff writer(s) (6 October 2016). "'Bombing hospitals is a war crime,' Syria's Assad says". ITV News. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
The intense bombardment of Aleppo during an army offensive that began two weeks ago has included several strikes on hospitals, residents and medical workers there have said. But Assad denied any knowledge of such attacks, saying that there were only "allegations".
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto"). - ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ Treene, Alayna (6 April 2017). "Tillerson: U.S. will lead coalition to oust Assad".Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
