Presidency of Bashar al-Assad

Presidency of Bashar al-Assad 17 July 2000 – 8 December 2024
President	Bashar al-Assad
Party	Ba'ath Party
Election	2000 2007 2014 2021
Seat	Presidential Palace, Damascus
←  Hafez al-Assad Abdul Halim Khaddam (acting) Ahmed al-Sharaa →
Seal of the President

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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The presidency of Bashar al-Assad began on 17 July 2000 succeeding his father, Hafez al-Assad who served as President of Syria from 1971 until his death on 10 June 2000,^[1] until his overthrow in 2024 during the Syrian civil war on 8 December.^[2]

Assad's early economic liberalisation programs worsened inequalities and centralized 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 once-traditional Ba'ath strongholds. The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in February 2005, triggered by the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, forced Assad to end the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

In 2011 Arab Spring protests began in Syria to which Assad responded with a brutal crackdown during the events of the Syrian revolution, which led to the Syrian civil war. The United States, European Union, and the majority of the Arab League called for Assad to resign. The civil war has killed around 580,000 people, of which a minimum of 306,000 deaths are non-combatant; according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, pro-Assad forces caused more than 90% of those civilian deaths.^[3] The Assad government perpetrated numerous war crimes during the course of the Syrian civil war,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} while its army has carried out several attacks with chemical weapons (most notably, the Ghouta chemical attack which killed hundreds mostly civilians on 21 August 2013)^{[9] [10]} The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that findings from an inquiry by the UN implicated Assad in war crimes, and he faced international investigations and condemnation for his actions.

In November 2024, a coalition of Syrian rebels mounted several offensives with the intention of ousting Assad.^[11][12] 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.^[13][14] Later that day, Damascus fell to rebel forces, and Assad's regime collapsed.^[15][16][17] After his departure, mass graves were discovered with the largest believed to contain 100,000 bodies of those who opposed Assad’s administration.^[18]

Academics and analysts characterized Assad's presidency as a highly personalist dictatorship,^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]} which governed Syria as a totalitarian police state^{[25][26][27][28]} and was marked by numerous human rights violations and severe repression. 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 the power structures and personality cult nurtured by his father, 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.