Syrian President Bashar al-Assad oversaw a cruel crackdown on a pro-democracy revolt that morphed into one of many bloodiest wars of the century.
After dealing with down nationwide protests demanding his ouster and an armed revolt that he all however crushed, he had till this month taken again management of a lot of Syria within the civil conflict that started in 2011.
Quiet in his manner, Assad is a political survivor who for years excelled in his alliance-building with Russia and Iran, and who knew simply the way to current himself as Syria’s solely viable chief within the face of the Islamist menace.
However since November 27, an Islamist-led insurgent offensive has wrested from Assad’s management metropolis after metropolis, together with Aleppo and Hama for the primary time since 2011, leaving his grip on energy severely beneath menace.
Assad has solid himself because the protector of Syria’s minorities, a bulwark in opposition to extremism and the only doable purveyor of stability for the war-ravaged nation.
In a number of votes held through the years, performed solely on government-held territory, he has taken the overwhelming majority of the ballots, amid accusations from Western international locations that the wartime elections have been neither free nor truthful.
In look, whether or not in particular person or within the many portraits of him within the capital Damascus, Assad has usually eschewed navy garb, opting as a substitute for a sharp-cut enterprise go well with and sober tie.
In official conferences, throughout interviews and even on the frontlines, the 59-year-old ophthalmologist by coaching conducts himself calmly and may virtually seem timid.
Behind the facade, nevertheless, is an astonishing means to carry onto energy amid a number of waves of violence and transformative change in Syria and the broader area.
– ‘Shuffle the playing cards’ –
One journalist, who met with Assad on a number of events earlier than and after conflict broke out in 2011, informed AFP the president is a “distinctive and sophisticated determine”.
“Every time I met him he was calm… even throughout probably the most troublesome moments of the conflict,” mentioned the journalist, who declined to be named.
Assad has “the identical qualities” as his father, Hafez al-Assad, who dominated Syria for practically three many years till his loss of life in 2000, the journalist mentioned.
“In politics, it is necessary to know the way to shuffle playing cards, not simply the way to prepare them,” he added. “Assad has mastered the shuffling recreation.”
Hafez al-Assad, head of the Syrian Baath Occasion, imposed within the nation a secretive, paranoid regime the place even the slightest suspicion of dissent might land one in jail or worse.
Bashar al-Assad was by no means meant to develop into president, however his life modified radically when his older brother Bassel, who was being groomed to inherit energy, was killed in a highway accident in 1994.
Bashar stop his research in ophthalmology and left London, the place he had met his spouse, Asma, a British-Syrian and Sunni Muslim who labored for monetary companies agency JP Morgan.
Again dwelling, he took a course in navy research and was tutored in politics by his father.
When the latter died, Bashar grew to become president by referendum, working unopposed, then profitable a second time period in 2007.
Sworn in on the age of 34, Assad was broadly seen by Syrians pining for freedoms as a reformer, who might dispose of years of repression and introduce financial liberalisation.
Within the early days, Assad can be seen driving his personal automotive or having dinner at eating places along with his spouse.
He relaxed a number of the heavy restrictions that existed beneath his father.
– Lethal crackdown –
However his preliminary picture as a reformer rapidly evaporated as authorities arrested and jailed lecturers, intellectuals and different members of what was then referred to as the Damascus Spring motion.
When the Arab Spring reached Syria in March 2011, peaceable demonstrations broke out calling for change.
Assad, who can be commander-in-chief of the armed forces, responded by ordering a brutal crackdown on the protesters and civil conflict swiftly ensued.
All through the conflict, which has killed greater than 500,000 folks and displaced half the inhabitants, Assad’s place has not modified.
He has been the topic of numerous cartoons by dissident artists depicting him as a killer, not least within the aftermath of the 2013 chemical assaults on insurgent bastions round Damascus.
A Syrian researcher in Damascus, who requested to talk anonymously over safety considerations, mentioned: “Assad’s persona performed an plain function in his survival.”
His “persistence and rigour” have been particularly necessary in serving to him “consolidate decision-making powers, and safe the military’s full assist”, he added.
All through the conflict, Assad has loved navy backing from staunch allies Iran and Russia, who helped him rating a string of navy victories.
Because the begin of the Islamist-led insurgent offensive on November 27, Assad has echoed his long-held stance that the battle in Syria is machinated from overseas.
“The terrorist escalation displays the far-reaching targets of dividing the area and fragmenting the international locations in it and redraw the map in step with the goals of the USA and the West,” Assad mentioned on Monday.
He’s the daddy of three youngsters. His spouse, Asma, was dubbed a “rose within the desert” by Vogue journal earlier than the revolt.
