FOX forty WICZ TV – News, Sports, Weather, Contests & More – Bashar al-Assad Swift Facts

(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Birth date: September 11, 1965

Birth place: Damascus, Syria

Father: Hafez Assad, late Syrian President

Mother: Anisa Makhlouf al-Assad

Marriage: Asma (Akhras) al-Assad (2000-present)

Children: Karim, 2004; Zein, 2003; Hafez, 2001

Education: University of Damascus, Medicine, 1988; Ophthalmology residency, London, 1992-1994

Military service: Syrian Army, 1999, Colonel

Religion: Alawite Muslim

1994 – Syrian President Hafez Assad’s oldest son and heir apparent, Basel, dies in a car accident. 2nd son Bashar, is called back from medical training in Britain and is groomed to take over his father’s role as president.

1999 – Bashar al-Assad becomes a colonel in the Syrian army.

June Ten, two thousand – President Hafez Assad dies of a heart attack after twenty nine years in office.

July Ten, two thousand – Bashar al-Assad is elected unopposed as president of Syria.

January two thousand six – Al-Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hold a summit meeting in Damascus. Al-Assad announces his support for Iran’s nuclear program.

April two thousand six – Al-Assad meets with the head of a United Nations panel investigating the two thousand five assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.

May 29, two thousand seven – Runs unopposed for president and is elected to a 2nd seven-year term.

October 14, two thousand eight – Al-Assad signs a decree establishing diplomatic relations inbetween Syria and Lebanon.

April 21, two thousand eleven – In response to Arab Spring protests, al-Assad lifts the country’s 48-year-old state of emergency law. The law, which went into effect in 1963, restricted freedom of speech and gave the government broad power to detain people for perceived threats to national security.

May Legitimate, two thousand eleven – The United States imposes sanctions against al-Assad and six other senior Syrian officials. The Treasury Department details the sanctions by telling, “As a result of this act, any property in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons in which the individuals listed in the Annex have an interest is blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”

May Nineteen, two thousand eleven – Al-Assad is harshly criticized in a speech by President Barack Obama. He says Syrians have displayed “courage in requiring a transition to democracy [but Assad’s regime] has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens. President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition, or get out of the way.”

August Eighteen, two thousand eleven – Both the United States and the European Union call for al-Assad to step down. US authorities also impose fresh economic sanctions against Damascus, freezing Syrian government assets in the United States, barring Americans from making fresh investments in Syria and prohibiting any US transactions relating to Syrian petroleum products, among other things.

October Ten, two thousand eleven – A statement issued after a meeting attended by all twenty seven foreign ministers in the EU condemns “in the strongest possible terms the ongoing brutal repression led by the Syrian regime,” and proclaims that Syria’s leader must resign “to permit a political transition to take place in Syria.”

November 14, two thousand eleven – Jordan’s King Abdullah calls on al-Assad to resign.

November 20, two thousand eleven – In an interview with a British newspaper, al-Assad warns other countries that military intervention in Syria would have “very dire” repercussions and that his country “will not back down” in the face of international pressure and condemnation.

November 22, two thousand eleven – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls on al-Assad to resign and warns that he faces the same fate as Benito Mussolini, Nicolae Ceausescu, and Moammar Gadhafi, all leaders killed by their own people.

December 7, two thousand eleven – In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, al-Assad denies responsibility for the violence in Syria and distances himself from the behavior of his armed coerces.

February Trio, two thousand twelve – Date of leaked email from Asma al-Assad to a friend discussing the merits of buying a certain pair of footwear, Christian Louboutin crystal-covered pumps for about $7,000. The same day two hundred Syrians are reported to have died in Homs.

March 10-11, two thousand twelve – Al-Assad meets twice with then-UN envoy Kofi Annan to discuss the bloodshed in Syria.

March 23, two thousand twelve – European Union sanctions are placed on al-Assad’s wifey, Asma, his mother, sister and sister-in-law. Their EU assets are frozen and a travel ban prevents them from traveling to any EU country. London-born Asma al-Assad cannot be barred entry into Britain despite the EU ban.

July Eighteen, two thousand twelve – Syria’s Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat — al-Assad’s brother-in-law is killed, along with two other regime officials, in an explosion at a national security building in Damascus.

January 6, two thousand thirteen – In a speech, al-Assad lays out his solution to the ongoing crisis in Syria. He says he wants to foster national dialogue and proposes a fresh constitution that would be put up for a public referendum. He also says he will not negotiate with terrorists and asks regional governments to stop supporting them.

April 17, two thousand thirteen – In an interview with Syria state TV network al Ekhbariya, al-Assad compares the support of rebels in Syria now to the backing of fighters in Afghanistan during their war with Soviet troops in the 1980s. He predicts that the rebel groups will one day turn against the United States and others.

June Trio, two thousand fourteen – Is re-elected with 88.7% of the vote, according to reports on state run television. It’s Syria’s very first election since the begin of civil war in 2011.

February Ten, two thousand fifteen – In an interview with the Big black cock, al-Assad says his regime is apprised of US-led coalition efforts against ISIS in Syria — not by the Americans, but through third parties such as Iraq. Al-Assad also says that Syria won’t join the international coalition attempting to “degrade and ruin” ISIS.

December 1, two thousand fifteen – In an interview with Czech TV, al-Assad says that US-led airstrikes against ISIS have not slowed the terrorist organization, and that ISIS has only recently begun to shrink due to Russia’s direct involvement.

July 9, two thousand sixteen – Al-Assad is named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, DC by the family of journalist, Marie Colvin, who was killed in two thousand twelve while covering the war in Syria. According to the lawsuit, Colvin was targeted in a rocket attack by Syrian government agents because of her reporting. Colvin and other journalists were tracked by the Syrian regime, the documents say. Days later, during an interview with NBC News, al-Assad denies that the government was responsible for Colvin’s death. He says she entered the country illegally, putting herself at risk.

April 11, two thousand seventeen – Russian president Vladimir Putin claims, without evidence, that a deadly chemical attack on April four in the town of Khan Sheikhoun was staged to framework al-Assad and his regime. Putin says that more chemical attacks are being planned by opponents of al-Assad to provoke act by the US.

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