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Bashar Hafez al-Assad[a] (born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the Secretary-General of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. His father, Hafez al-Assad, was the president of Syria before him, serving from 1971 to 2000.
Born and raised in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad graduated from the medical school of Damascus University in 1988 and began 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 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 military presence in Lebanon in 1998.
Political scientists have characterised the Assad family's rule of Syria as a personalist dictatorship.[b] On 17 July 2000, Assad became president, succeeding his father, who died in office a month prior. In the uncontested 2000 and 2007 elections, he received 97.29% and 97.6% support, respectively.[c] On 16 July 2014, Assad was sworn in for another seven-year term after another election gave him 88.7% of the vote.[d] The election was held only in areas controlled by the Syrian government during the country's ongoing civil war and was criticised by the UN.[21][22] Assad was re-elected in 2021 with over 95% of the vote in another non-democratic national election. Throughout his leadership, human rights groups have characterized Syria's human rights situation as poor. The Assad government describes itself as secular,[23] while some political scientists write that his regime exploits sectarian tensions in the country.[24][25]
Once seen by many states 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 in 2011 after he ordered a violent crackdown on Arab Spring protesters, which led to the Syrian Civil War.[26][27] In December 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated that findings from an inquiry by the United Nations implicated Assad in war crimes.[28] The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism concluded in October 2017 that Assad's government was responsible for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.[29] In June 2014, the American Syrian Accountability Project included Assad on a list of war crimes indictments of government officials and rebels it sent to the International Criminal Court.[30] Assad has rejected allegations of war crimes and criticised the American-led intervention in Syria for attempting regime change.
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