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Syria & Yemen

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Bashar al-Assad

born 11 September 1965) is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death. Al-Assad was elected in 2000 and 2007, but was unopposed each time.Bashar al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, the son of Aniseh (née Makhluf) and Hafez al-Assad.[citation needed] Initially Bashar had few political aspirations.[citation needed] His father had been grooming Bashar's older brother, Basil al-Assad, as a future president.[citation needed] Bashar studied ophthalmology at Damascus University 1988 and arrived in London in 1992 to continue his studies.[citation needed] He was recalled in 1994 to join the Syrian army after Basil's death in an automobile accident.[citation needed] Bashar entered the military academy at Homs, north of Damascus, following the death of Basil, and was propelled through the ranks to become a colonel in January 1999.[citation needed] The accident made Bashar his father's new heir-apparent.

When the elder Assad died in 2000, Bashar was appointed leader of the Baath-Party and the Army and was elected president unopposed with what the regime claimed to be a massive popular support (97.2% of the votes), after the Majlis Al Sha'ab (Parliament) swiftly voted to lower the minimum age for candidates from 40 to 34 (Assad's age when he was elected). On 27 May 2007 Bashar was approved as president for another seven-year term, with the official result of 97.6% of the votes in a referendum without another candidate.

Assad stands about 189 cm (6 ft 2 in). He speaks English fluently and also speaks casual conversational French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyah school in Damascus, before going on to medical school at the University of Damascus Faculty of Medicine. He completed his ophthalmology residency training in Tishreen Military Hospital of Damascus and subsequently went on to receive sub-specialty training in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital in London.[4] (He did not finish his formal training, due to the unexpected death of his brother.) Bashar was a staff colonel in the Syrian military.[5]

In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, née Akhras,[6] a Syrian from Acton (west London) whom he met in the United Kingdom, where she was born and raised.[7][8] On 3 December 2001, they became the parents of their first-born child, named Hafez after his late grandfather. Zein was born on 5 November 2003, and Karim on 16 December 2004.

In his domestic policy, he has been criticized for a disregard for human rights, economic lapses, and corruption.[citation needed] In his foreign policy, Al-Assad is an outspoken critic of the United States and Israel.[9] The Ba'ath Party remains in control of the parliament, and is constitutionally the "leading party" of the state. Until he became president, Bashar al-Assad was not greatly involved in politics; his only public role was head of the Syrian Computer Society, which introduced the Internet to Syria in 2001. Al-Assad was confirmed as president by an unopposed referendum in 2000. He was expected to take a more liberal approach than his father. In an interview he stated that he saw democracy in Syria as 'a tool to a better life' but then argued that it would take time for democracy to come about and that it could not be rushed.[10] Politically and economically, Syrian life has changed only slightly since 2000. Immediately after he took office a reform movement made cautious advances during the Damascus Spring, which led al-Assad to shut down Mezzeh prison and release hundreds of political prisoners. However, security crackdowns commenced again within the year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad

 

Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh (Arabic: 9DJ 9(/'DDG 5'D- ; born 21 March 1942[2][3][4]) is the first President of the Republic of Yemen. Saleh previously served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) from 1978 until 1990, at which time he assumed the office of chairman of the Presidential Council of the Republic of Yemen (unified Yemen). He is the longest-serving president of Yemen, ruling since 1978.[5]

Saleh was born in the town of al-Ahmar,[2] in the Al-Ahmar family — the ruling family of the Hashid tribal confederacy. Saleh is a Zaydi Shia Muslim.[2] He is a "non-Hashimi" Zaydi (not a direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandfather), and would not have been eligible to rule under the Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen that ruled the country until 1962.[6]

Saleh obtained less than an elementary school education.[2] He joined the North Yemeni armed forces in 1958 and the North Yemen Military Academy in 1960,[1] and became a corporal.[2] Three years later, he was commissioned from the ranks as a second lieutenant.[1] In 1977, the President of North Yemen, Ahmed bin Hussein al-Ghashmi, appointed him as military governor of Ta'izz.[2]

After al-Ghashmi was assassinated on 24 June 1978, Saleh was appointed to be a member of the four-man provisional presidency council and deputy to the general staff commander.[1][2] On 17 July 1978, Saleh was elected by the Parliament[citation needed] to be the President of the Yemen Arab Republic, chief of staff and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

On 10 August 1978, Saleh ordered the execution of 30 officers charged to be part of a conspiracy against his rule.[2]

Saleh was promoted to colonel in 1979, elected the secretary-general of the General People's Congress party on 30 August 1982, and re-elected president of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1983.[1]

On 24 December 1997, Parliament approved Saleh's promotion to the rank of field marshal.[1][2] He is currently the highest-ranking military officer in Yemen.[2]

Saleh became Yemen's first directly-elected president in the 1999 presidential election, winning 96.2% of the vote.[9]:310 The only other candidate, Najeeb Qahtan Al-Sha'abi, was the son of Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi, a former President of South Yemen. Though a member of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party, Najeeb ran as an independent.[10]

After the 1999 elections the Parliament passed a law extending presidential terms from five to seven years, extending parliamentary terms from four to six years, and creating a 111-member, presidentially-appointed council of advisors with legislative power.[1] This move prompted Freedom House to downgrade their rating of political freedom in Yemen from 5 to 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Abdullah_Saleh

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 September 2011 14:54