In this March 25, 2011 file photo, a man holds a picture of Syrian President Bashar Assad outside a mini van with a poster on the back showing the president, center, and his two brothers Maher Assad, left, and Bassel Assad, with Arabic that reads, "If God triumphs you, no one can defeat you," in Damascus, Syria. Bashar al-Assad was never his father Hafez’ choice to take over from him to preserve the Alawite sect’s iron control of Syria. The killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul by agents believed to be close to the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has cast him into the ruthless and pitiless pantheon of sons of the Arab World’s most infamous tyrants. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
Bashar al-Assad, an eye doctor educated in the West, was never his father Hafez' choice to take over from him to preserve the Alawite sect's iron control of Syria. The eldest son, Bassel, had been groomed for the role, rising in the military and praised by the Baath party. But he died in a car crash in 1994. When Assad the father died in 2000 after ruling for 29 years, it was Bashar who took over. Pre-civil war, it was thought in the West that he could be a useful ally in the region. That all changed after the brutal crackdown on Arab Spring protests accelerated into a ruinous civil war that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, displaced millions internally, with millions more fleeing overseas, and laid waste to the country's infrastructure. Assad, as far as the West and some Arab states were concerned, was the chief culprit for the carnage wrought. He was on the cusp of defeat and a probable demise not dissimilar to Saddam's family. But Russian military support turned the tide in his favor. Now, with the civil war in its final phases, Assad's rule seems set to continue.
