Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad
بشار الأسد
Assad in 2024
19th President of Syria
In office 17 July 2000 – 8 December 2024
Prime Minister	See list Muhammad Mustafa Mero Muhammad Naji al-Otari Adel Safar Riyad Farid Hijab Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji Wael Nader al-Halqi Imad Khamis Hussein Arnous Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali
Vice President	See list Abdul Halim Khaddam (2000–2005) Zuhair Masharqa (2000–2006) Farouk al-Sharaa (2006–2014) Najah al-Attar (2006–2024) Faisal Mekdad (Sep–Dec 2024)
Preceded by	Hafez al-Assad Abdul Halim Khaddam (acting)
Succeeded by	Ahmed al-Sharaa (as de facto leader)
General Secretary of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office 24 June 2000 – 8 December 2024
Deputy	Abdullah al-Ahmar Hilal Hilal Ibrahim al-Hadid
Preceded by	Hafez al-Assad
Succeeded by	Ibrahim al-Hadid (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1965-09-11) 11 September 1965 (age 59) Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic
Political party	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (until 2024)
Other political affiliations	National Progressive Front
Spouse	Asma Akhras ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	3, including Hafez
Parents	Hafez al-Assad (father) Anisa Makhlouf (mother)
Relatives	Assad family
Residences	Presidential Palace, Damascus (until 2024) Moscow, Russia (since 2024)
Education	Damascus University (MD)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Ba'athist Syria
Branch/service	Syrian Arab Armed Forces
Years of service	1988–2024
Rank	Field marshal
Unit	Republican Guard (until 2000)
Commands	Syrian Arab Armed Forces
Battles/wars	Syrian civil war

This article is part of a series about Bashar al-Assad
Personal Early life Family Personal life Presidency Foreign policy Presidential trips Occupation of Lebanon Cedar Revolution Damascus Spring Damascus Declaration Operation Outside the Box Syrian civil war Arab Spring Syrian revolution Arab–Israeli conflict War against ISIS COVID-19 pandemic Regime fall Fall of Damascus (2024) Proposed handover to Syria Governments Mero I Mero II Al-Otari Safar Hijab Al-Halqi I Al-Halqi II Khamis Arnous I Arnous II Jalali Elections 2000 2007 2014 2021
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Part of a series on
Ba'athism
Organizations Arab Ba'ath 1940–1947 Arab Ba'ath Movement 1940–1947 Ba'ath Party 1947–1966 Baath Party (pro-Iraqi) 1968–2003 Baath Party (pro-Syrian) 1966–2024
Variants Neo-Ba'athism 1966–2024 Saddamism 1979–2003
People Zaki al-Arsuzi Michel Aflaq Salah al-Din al-Bitar Abdullah Rimawi Wahib al-Ghanim Fuad al-Rikabi Salah Jadid Hafez al-Assad Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Saddam Hussein Bashar al-Assad Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
Literature On the Way of Resurrection The Battle for One Destiny The Genius of Arabic in Its Tongue
History Ba'athist Iraq Attempted assassination of Abdul-Karim Qasim Ramadan Revolution November 1963 coup d'état 17 July Revolution 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge Iran–Iraq War Gulf War UN sanctions Iraq War De-Ba'athification Ba'athist Syria Syrian Committee to Help Iraq 1963 / 1966 coup d'états Syrian invasion of Jordan Corrective Revolution Intervention in Lebanon Syrian occupation of Lebanon Syrian civil war Fall of the Assad regime
Regional organizations Algeria pro-Iraq pro-Syria Bahrain pro-Iraq pro-Syria Egypt pro-Iraq pro-Syria Iraq pro-Iraq pro-Syria Jordan pro-Iraq pro-Syria Kuwait pro-Iraq Lebanon pro-Iraq pro-Syria Libya pro-Iraq Mauritania pro-Iraq pro-Syria Palestine pro-Iraq pro-Syria Sudan pro-Iraq pro-Syria Syria pro-Iraq pro-Syria Tunisia pro-Iraq pro-Syria Yemen pro-Iraq pro-Syria
Splinter groups Arab Socialist Revolutionary Ba'ath Party 1960–1962/63 Socialist Lebanon 1965–1970 Arab Revolutionary Workers Party 1966–present Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party 1970–present Sudanese Ba'ath Party 2002–present
Armed groups Arab Liberation Front Al-Awda Al-Abud Network Jeish Muhammad Rejectionists Snake Party Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation Naqshbandi Army General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries Free Iraqi Army
Related topics Arab nationalism Arab socialism Assadist–Saddamist conflict Nasserism Pan-Arabism Waḥda, Ḥurriyya, Ishtirākiyya
Politics portal Socialism portal
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Bashar al-Assad^[a] (born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator^[1] who served as the 19th president of Syria from 2000 until his government was overthrown in 2024. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.

In the 1980s, Assad became a doctor, and in the early 1990s he was training in London as an ophthalmologist. In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel al-Assad died in a car crash, Assad was recalled to Syria to take over Bassel's role as heir apparent. Assad entered the military academy and in 1998 took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon begun by his father. On 17 July 2000, Assad became president, succeeding his father, who had died on 10 June 2000.^[2] Hopes that the UK-educated Assad would bring reform to Syria and relax the occupation of Lebanon^[3] were dashed following a series of crackdowns in 2001–2002 that ended the Damascus Spring, a period defined by calls for transparency and democracy. Assad's rule would become more repressive than his father's.^[4]

Assad's regime was a highly personalist dictatorship^[5] that governed Syria as a totalitarian police state.^[6] It committed systemic human rights violations and war crimes, making it one of the most repressive regimes in modern times. The regime was consistently ranked among the "worst of the worst" within Freedom House indexes.^[7] His first decade in power was marked by extensive censorship, summary executions, forced disappearances, discrimination against ethnic minorities, and extensive surveillance by the Ba'athist secret police. While the Assad government described itself as secular, various political scientists and observers noted that his regime exploited sectarian tensions in the country. Although Assad inherited Hafez's power structures and personality 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 from Alawite clans. Assad's early economic liberalization programs worsened inequalities and centralised the socio-political power of the loyalist Damascene elite of the Assad 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 the Cedar Revolution in 2005, which was triggered by the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri. The Mehlis report implicated Assad's regime in the assassination, with a particular focus on Maher al-Assad, Assef Shawkat, Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleiman, and Jamil Al Sayyed.^[8]

After the Syrian revolution began in 2011, Assad led a deadly crackdown against Arab Spring protests which led to outbreak of the Syrian civil war. The Syrian opposition, United States, European Union, and the majority of the Arab League called on him to resign, but he refused and the war escalated. Between 2011 and 2024, over 600,000 people were killed, with pro-Assad forces causing more than 90% of civilian casualties.^[9] Throughout the war, the Ba'athist Syrian armed forces carried out several chemical attacks.^[10] In 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that findings from a UN inquiry directly implicated Assad in crimes against humanity. The regime's perpetration of war crimes led to international condemnation and isolation,^[11] although Assad maintained power with assistance from Syria's longtime allies Iran and Russia. Iran launched a military intervention in support of his government in 2013 and Russia followed in 2015; by 2021, Assad's regime had regained control over most of the country.

In November 2024, a coalition of Syrian rebels mounted several offensives with the intention of ousting Assad.^[12][13] On the morning of 8 December, as rebel troops first entered Damascus, Assad fled to Moscow and was granted political asylum by the Russian government.^[14][15] Later that day, Damascus fell to rebel forces, and Assad's regime collapsed.^[16][17][18]

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