Looking back at Syria's Bashar al-Assad
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Transcript
00:00 He wanted to become an ophthalmologist but fate decided otherwise.
00:04 After his designated heir, Basel was killed in a car crash in 1994, Syrian leader Hafez
00:09 al-Assad asked his second son to return home.
00:13 Bashar al-Assad, not yet 30 years old, gave up his studies in London and returned to Damascus.
00:18 Considered a shy intellectual, he found himself in the role of successor, although his father
00:23 at the time ruled it out.
00:26 "No, I'm not preparing my son to succeed me, he's never even spoken of it to me.
00:31 Maybe people are saying it because he's politically active.
00:34 I've heard that his friends like him and that the people of Syria respect him, but
00:38 there is no article in the constitution or in our laws that allows for a relative's
00:42 right to succession."
00:45 The regime then adapted that constitution to suit itself.
00:49 Within hours of Hafez al-Assad's death in June 2000, the minimum age to become president
00:54 was lowered from 40 to 34, the very age of his son Bashar.
01:00 He stood for election that year unopposed.
01:03 After three decades of dictatorship, hope was in the air.
01:07 But Bashar al-Assad soon picked up his father's habits and went back to a severe autocratic
01:11 regime, tolerating little dissent.
01:15 His biggest test was yet to come.
01:17 In March 2011, with uprisings sweeping the Arab world, his regime faced an unprecedented
01:22 challenge to its grip on power.
01:25 Fearing for its survival, the Assad family oversaw a brutal crackdown on protesters.
01:31 As head of the powerful Republican Guard, Bashar's brother Maher ordered his troops
01:35 to use violent tactics to suppress mostly peaceful crowds, civilians the regime systematically
01:40 described as terrorists.
01:43 It drove what had been otherwise peaceful protesters into taking up arms, plunging Syria
01:48 into civil war.
01:51 Assad's regime sparked international outrage in 2013 when it used chemical weapons, a red
01:57 line for the West, but there would be no intervention.
02:00 That same year, the Islamic State group emerged from the remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
02:05 It was the beginning of a reign of terror that would stretch across entire parts of
02:09 Syria, helped in part by the Syrian regime's decision to release terrorists from prisons.
02:14 Assad was accused of facilitating the rise of the Islamic State group so he could paint
02:18 the Syrian opposition as terrorists.
02:20 Against the odds, he clung to power and the tide finally turned his way in 2015.
02:29 Both Iranian support and Russia's intervention on the regime's side were game changers.
02:34 It allowed the Syrian regime to claw back territory.
02:37 A pariah for the best part of a decade, the Arab League's decision to readmit Syria in
02:42 May this year was a symbolic victory for Bashar al-Assad.
02:45 It cemented his return to the Arab fold, despite his regime's role in killing hundreds of thousands
02:50 of civilians.
02:50 (speaking in foreign language)