Word: bashar
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...Bashar's view will have to extend outside Damascus as well. He'll focus not only on the Golan Heights but also on Lebanon, a land that was a playpen for his father's power politics. With Israel gone from Lebanon, many Lebanese, particularly Christians, are eager to see Syria go too. Damascus has 30,000 soldiers in the nation, and it controls much of the political discourse. It can try to steer Hizballah, the anti-Israeli guerrilla force, but it cannot control it. Israel has vowed to hold Damascus accountable for any Hizballah attacks on northern Israel. Bashar will...
With Hafez Assad's death, the spotlight turns to his son Bashar, 34, a mild-mannered ophthalmologist and perhaps the most unlikely political heir among the new generation of Arab leaders who have started assuming power in the Middle East. Indeed, Bashar's older brother Basil, a daring, charismatic figure, had been favored to follow in their father's footsteps until he was killed in a traffic accident...
...accounts, Dr. Bashar, as many Syrians call him, never wanted to be President. Educated in Syria and England, Assad's second son is an intellectual by temperament--rather like his brooding father--and not the best public speaker. But after his brother's death, Bashar returned from his studies in London, and at his father's request underwent accelerated military training, eventually earning the rank of colonel in the elite Presidential Guard...
Being groomed as his father's successor clearly put the modest doctor in an awkward position. "I am not seeking high posts," he told Al-Wasat, an Arabic magazine published in London. "But I will not evade my responsibilities." Bashar is, in many ways, a more impressive figure than was his brother, says British author and Assad biographer Patrick Seale. "Basil was a very physical man, very keen on dangerous sports like hang gliding, parachuting, fast cars," Seale recalls. "[Bashar] is much more reflective, much more thoughtful. Much more able to implement or pursue the political legacy of his father...
Before long Bashar was put in charge of Syria's affairs in Lebanon. And around the country, iconic images of the doctor became nearly as familiar as those of his father. He seems to have picked up at least a few of his father's hardball tactics. When his uncle Rifaat--who was exiled to Europe after a failed coup attempt--started questioning Bashar's ability to lead last fall, the younger man's allies led Syrian forces in a raid against an "illegal" coastal stronghold owned by Rifaat...