Syrian president bashar al-assad s

Syrian presidential administration from 2000 to 2024

The presidency of Bashar al-Assad began on 17 July 2000 succeeding his father, Hafez al-Assad who served as President of Syria from 1971 until his death on 10 June 2000,^[1] until his overthrow in 2024 during the Syrian civil war on 8 December.^[2]

Assad's early economic liberalisation programs worsened inequalities and centralized the socio-political power of the loyalist Damascene elite of the Assad family, alienating the Syrian rural population, urban working classes, businessmen, industrialists, and people from once-traditional Ba'ath strongholds.

The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in February 2005, triggered by the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, forced Assad to end the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

In 2011 Arab Spring protests began in Syria to which Assad responded with a brutal crackdown during the events of the Syrian revolution, which led to the S