Syria: 20 years in power for Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad, during a press conference in Damascus, Syria, in December 2017. AFP

By: Chantal Lorho Follow

20 years ago, Bashar al-Assad took the reins of Syria. A president by default: his older brother Bassel, who died in a car accident in January 1994, was chosen by his father Hafez al-Assad to succeed him.

Publicity

20 years later - including 9 years of civil war - the lion of Damascus is still there, the left and self-effacing young man has turned into a dictator without qualms, not hesitating to have strafed, bombarded, tortured, gassed its people ... Assessment: nearly 400,000 dead, 5.5 million refugees in neighboring countries, 6.5 million internally displaced persons ... and 85% of the population reduced to living below the poverty line.

How did Bashar al-Assad become this Machiavellian strategist capable of getting up when he is believed to be cornered? Did he win the war by sacrificing the independence of Syria? Is the Syrian president now the hostage of his Russian and Iranian allies? Is it weakened or does it remain essential? How did the Alawite clan of which he is the leader manage to get hold of the country's wealth? What consequences can quarrels and dissensions have within the Assad family? Does diplomacy still have a role to play?

Three guests:
- Michel Duclos , French Ambassador in Damascus from 2006 to 2009, now special advisor to the Institut Montaigne, published in 2019 “ The long Syrian night. 10 years of powerless diplomacy "published by the Observatory
- Thomas Pierret , researcher at Iremam, the Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab and Muslim Worlds, specialist in Syria, author of" Baath and Islam in Syria. The Assad dynasty facing the ulemas ”, published by Presses Universitaires de France in 2011
- Hala Kodmani , major reporter for the newspaper Liberation , specialist in the Middle East, founder of the association“ Souria, Houria ”, published in 2017“ Alone in Raqqa ”, published by Équateurs.

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  • Syria
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