Bashar al-Assad بشار حافظ الأسد
President of Syria
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 July 2000
Prime Minister	Muhammad Mustafa Mero Muhammad Naji al-Otari Adel Safar
Vice President	Farouk al-Sharaa Najah al-Attar
Preceded by	Abdul Halim Khaddam (Acting)
Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 June 2000
Deputy	Mohammed Saeed Bekheitan
Preceded by	Hafez al-Assad
Personal details
Born	Bashar Hafez al-Assad (1965-09-11) 11 September 1965 (age 46) Damascus, Syria
Political party	Syrian-led Ba'ath Party (Syrian branch: NPF)
Spouse(s)	Asma al-Akhras
Alma mater	Damascus University
Profession	Ophthalmologist
Religion	Alawi Shia Islam[1]
Website	The President

Bashar Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: بشار حافظ الأسد‎, Baššār al-ʾAsad, ‎‎‎Arabic pronunciation: [bæʃˈʃɑːɾɪlˈʔæsæd])‎; born 11 September 1965) is the current President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000.

Al-Assad graduated from the medical school of the University of Damascus in 1988, and started to work as a doctor in the army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, in London, specializing in ophthalmology. In 1994, Al-Assad entered the military academy and in 1998, Al-Assad took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, née Akhras. Al-Assad was elected as President of Syria in 2000 and 2007, unopposed each time.^[2][3] During the Syrian uprising, activists and protesters have called for President al-Assad's resignation.^[4]

Early life[link]

Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, the son of Aniseh (née Makhluf) and Hafez al-Assad.^[5] His father, Hafez al-Assad, born to a poor family of Alawite background, had risen through the Party ranks, to take control of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in the 1970 Corrective Revolution, thus installing himself as president. Hafez al-Assad purged the Party, and introduced effective Alawite rule of Syria.^[5][6]

Unlike his brothers, Bassel and Maher, and sister, Bushra, Bashar was quiet and reserved and says that he lacked interest in politics or the military.^[7] He later said that he only entered his father's office once while he was in power and he never spoke about politics with him.^[8] He received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus^[7] and was an exemplary student.^[9] In 1982, he graduated from high school and went on to study medicine at Damascus University.^[9]

In 1988, Bashar Assad graduated from medical school and began working as an army doctor in the biggest military hospital, "Tishrin", on the outskirts of Damascus.^[10][11] Four years later, he went to the United Kingdom to begin postgraduate training in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital, part of the St Mary's group of teaching hospitals in London.^[12] Bashar at the time had few political aspirations.^[13] His father had been grooming Bashar's older brother, Bassel al-Assad, as the future president, but never openly declaring this intent.^[14] Bashar, however, was recalled in 1994 to the Syrian army, after Bassel's unexpected death in an automobile accident.^[12]

Death of Bassel[link]

The Al-Assad family around 1994. At the front are Hafez al-Assad and his wife, Anisa. At the back row, from left to right: Maher (commander of the Republican Guard), Bashar, Bassel, Majid, and Bushra

Soon after the death of Bassel, Hafez Assad made the decision to make Bashar the new heir-apparent.^[15] Over the next six and half years, until his death in 2000, Hafez went about systematically preparing Bashar for taking over power. Preparations for a smooth transition were made on three levels. First, support was built up for Bashar in the military and security apparatus. Second, Bashar's image was established with the public. And lastly, Bashar was familiarized with the mechanisms of running the country.^[16]

To establish his credentials in the military, Bashar entered in 1994 the military academy at Homs, north of Damascus, and was propelled through the ranks to become a colonel in January 1999.^[10][17][18] To establish a power base for Bashar in the military, old divisional commanders were pushed into retirement, and new, young, Alawite officers with loyalties to him took their place.^[19] Parallel to his military career, Bashar was engaged in public affairs. He was granted wide powers and became a political adviser to President Hafez al-Assad, head of the bureau to receive complaints and appeals of citizens, and led a campaign against corruption. As a result of his campaign against corruption, Bashar was able to remove his potential rivals for president.^[10]

In 1998, Bashar took charge of Syria's Lebanon file, which had since the 1970s been handled by former Vice President Abdul Khaddam, one of the few Sunni officials in the Assad government, who had until then been a potential contender for president.^[19] By taking charge of Syrian affairs in Lebanon, Bashar was able to push Khaddam aside and establish his own power base in Lebanon.^[20] In that same year after minor consultation with Lebanese politicians, Bashar installed Emile Lahoud, a loyal ally of his, as the President of Lebanon and pushed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri aside, by not placing his political weight behind his nomination as prime minister.^[21] To further weaken the old Syrian order in Lebanon, Bashar replaced the long serving de facto Syrian High Commissioner of Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, with loyal ally Rustum Ghazali.^[22] Under Bashar, Syrian corruption in Lebanon, which was already estimated at $2 billion per year in the 1990s,^[23] became more rampant and was publicly exposed with the collapse in 2003 of the Lebanese Al-Madina bank.^[24] Al-Madina was used to launder kickback money in the illegal gaming of the UN's Iraqi oil-for-food programme. Sources put the amount transferred and laundered through al-Madina at more than $1 billion, with a 25 percent commission going to Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies, among the recipients of this money were Bashar Assad's brother Maher, Emile Lahoud's son-in-law Elias Murr, and Ghazali.^[25][26]

Presidency[link]

Syria

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Syria

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