Bashar Assad

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Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russia’s Putin hosts Syria’s Assad in the Kremlin as tensions rise in the Middle East

Associated Press

In this photo released on Nov. 9, 2019, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks in Damascus, Syria. The Paris appeals court has decided on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, to uphold an arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar Assad that France issued last year for alleged complicity in war crimes during Syria's civil war. (SANA via AP, File)

Paris court upholds validity of France’s arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar Assad

Associated Press

FILE - In this photo released on Nov. 9, 2019 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks in Damascus, Syria. In a landmark trial, a Paris court will this week seek Tuesday May 21, 2024 to determine whether Syrian intelligence officials were responsible for Patrick and Mazzen Dabbagh's disappearance and deaths. The hearings are expected to air chilling allegations that President Bashar Assad's regime has widely used torture and arbitrary detentions to keep power in Syria's civil war. (SANA via AP, File)

France is trying Syrian ex-officials for the torture and killing of a father and son. Here’s why

By Nicolas Vaux-Montagny, Barbara Surk and John Leicester - Associated Press

FILE - Syria's first lady Asma Assad, second left, listens to her husband Syrian President Bashar Assad as he speaks to the media after they voted at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, on May 26, 2021. Syrian first lady Asma Assad has been diagnosed with leukemia, the office of President Bashar Assad announced Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Syrian first lady Asma Assad diagnosed with leukemia, president’s office says

Associated Press

FILE - Syrian President Bashar Assad waves for his supporters at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 26, 2021. French judicial authorities on Wednesday issued international arrest warrants for Syrian President Bashar Assad, his brother Maher, and two army generals alleging their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including in chemical attacks in 2013 on rebel-held Damascus suburbs, lawyers for Syrian victims said. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

France issues arrest warrants for Syrian president, 3 generals alleging involvement in war crimes

By Barbara Surk and Angela Charlton - Associated Press

Demonstrators hold pictures of people they say disappeared in Syria outside the World Court, where preliminary hearings opened in a case in which the Netherlands and Canada are suing Syria at the International Court of Justice, or World Court, the United Nations' highest judicial organ, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, accusing Damascus of massive human rights violations against its own people. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Canada and the Netherlands take Syria to top U.N. court, accuse Damascus of widespread torture

By Mike Corder - Associated Press

China's President Xi Jinping attends the plenary session during the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug. 23, 2023. China and Syria will announce the formation of a strategic partnership, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, at the start of a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in southern China. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool via AP, File)

Leaders of Syria and China announce strategic partnership as part of Asian Games diplomacy

By Ken Mortitsugu - Associated Press

Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, waves to his supporters at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, May 26, 2021. President Bashar Assad will head to China later this week in his first visit to Beijing since the country's conflict started 12 years during which China was one of his main backers, his office said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives in China on first visit since the beginning of war in Syria

Associated Press

Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, waves to his supporters at a polling station during the Presidential elections in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, May 26, 2021. President Bashar Assad will head to China later this week in his first visit to Beijing since the country's conflict started 12 years during which China was one of his main backers, his office said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Syria’s Assad will visit China as Beijing boosts its reach in the Middle East

By Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

In this photo released by Suwayda24, people hold placards during a protest in the southern city of Sweida, Syria, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The protests in the Druze-majority city have been ongoing for more then two weeks, initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiraling economy but later widening to calls for the fall of the Assad government. (Suwayda24 via AP)

Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader

Associated Press

People queue up for gasoline in Idlib province, Syria, on Dec. 15, 2022. Syria’s president early Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, doubled public servant and retirees wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)

Protests rock government-held areas in southern Syria as economy crumbles

By Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

In this photo released on the official Telegram page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Assad blasted Turkey in comments published Wednesday blaming it for the spread of "terrorism" and trying to make its military presence in the war-torn country legitimate. (Syrian Presidency Telegram page via AP)

Assad blames Erdogan for violence in Syria and insists on a pullout of Turkish troops

By Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb - Associated Press

Syria Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, right, meets with his Jordan counterpart Ayman Safadi in Damascus, Syria, Monday, July 3, 2023. Jordan's top diplomat Monday called for international investment into crisis-hit Syria's crippled infrastructure in order to speed up refugee returns. Safadi made these remarks following a visit to Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his counterpart Faisal Mekdad. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Jordan’s foreign minister calls for investment into war-torn Syria to speed up refugee returns

By Omar Sanadiki and Kareem Chehayeb - Associated Press

Dozens of Syrians wait at the President's Bridge in Damascus, Syria, for relatives they hope would be among those released from prison on May 3, 2022, on the second day of the Muslim Fitr holiday. The U.N. General Assembly approved Thursday, June 29, 2023, to form an independent international institution to search for the missing in Syria in both government and opposition-held areas. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

Families of tens of thousands missing in Syria draw some hope from new U.N. push to find loved ones

By Kareem Chehayeb and Ghaith Al-Sayed - Associated Press

In this photo released by Saudi Press Agency, a Saudi custom officer opens imported pomegranates, as customs foiled an attempt to smuggle over 5 million pills of an amphetamine drug known as Captagon, which they said came from Lebanon, at Jiddah Islamic Port, Saudi Arabia, Friday, April 23, 2021. A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbors, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria. (Saudi Press Agency via AP, File)

Captagon, a little white pill, gives Syria’s Assad a strong tool in winning over Arab states

By Kareem Chehayeb - Associated Press

In this photo provided by the Tunisian Presidency, Tunisian President Kais Saied, right, shakes hand with Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during the Arab summit, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Slim Abid/Tunisian Presidency via AP)

Tunisian leader calls meeting with Syria’s Assad ‘historic,’ buries memories of Arab Spring

Associated Press

In this photo provided by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, talks to Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, upon his arrival at Jeddah airport, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, May 18, 2023, ahead of the Arab summit. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Arab leaders, joined by Syria’s Assad at summit in Saudi Arabia, look to resolve other conflicts

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

In this photo released on Nov. 9, 2019, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP, File)

Returning to the Arab fold, Syria’s president invited to UAE-hosted COP28 climate

By Jon Gambrell - Associated Press

In this photo released by Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delegates and foreign ministers of member states convene at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, May 7, 2023. The ministers are voting on restoring Syria's membership to the organization after it was suspended over a decade ago. The meeting comes after a rapid rapprochement between Syria and regional governments since February. (Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

Back in the Arab League after 12 years, Syria urges group to invest in war-torn country

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

FILE - In this file photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, receives a delegation representing various Arab parliaments in Damascus, Feb. 26, 2023. Gamal Rushdy, a spokesman for the Arab League said Friday, May 5, 2023 that diplomats from Arab nations are planning an emergency meeting in Cairo over the weekend about the fighting in Sudan and the prospect of Syria's return to the Arab League more than a decade after its membership was suspended. (SANA via AP, File)

Arab League ministers move to end Syria’s isolation despite U.S. concerns

By David R. Sands - The Washington Times