Sammy Ketz -
Syrian President Bashar al Assad, who has denied ordering last week’s suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town, believes his victory is inevitable in the six-year-old war ravaging his country. Bolstered by the steady support of Russia and Iran, Assad has appeared unfazed by Western threats to his regime — even after one of his airbases was hit last week by a barrage of American cruise missiles.
The suffering of Syria’s people “is the only thing that could deprive me from sleep from time to time, but not the Western statements and not the threat of the support of the terrorists,” he said on Wednesday. “It has always been a struggle for life and death. There was no question of stopping this war. It was either win or lose,” said Nikolaos van Dam, a former Dutch ambassador and Syria expert.The 51-year-old former ophthalmologist’s life changed radically when his brother Bassel, groomed to inherit power from their father, Hafez, was killed in a road accident in 1994. Assad had to leave London, where he had met his wife Asma, a British-Syrian who worked for financial services firm JP Morgan. Assad was tutored in politics by his father, who ruled Syria with an iron fist from 1971 until his death in 2000. “The regime has half a century of experience of how to stay in power. It has the support of the army and security services,” van Dam said.
Assad has two sons and a daughter, and says he still lives in his Damascus home, drives the children to school and goes to work in his downtown office. When Assad came to power in 2000, he relaxed some of the heavy restrictions on freedom that existed under his father.
But as the Arab Spring reached Syria in March 2011, he responded with a brutal crackdown, labelling it a “terrorist” conspiracy aimed at breaking the “axis of resistance” against Israel.
“Assad advisers maintained from the beginning that they were confident of success so long as the United States did not bomb Damascus or get involved in the war,” said Joshua Landis of the University of Oklahoma. But even after the US strike on the Shayrat air base, Assad remains convinced of his victory. Experts say this unwavering belief has helped him to maintain a firm grip on power despite the raging conflict. “He was from the same school as his father, and this school has always understood the importance of time, how to turn bad headwinds into good,” said Waddah Abed Rabbo, editor-in-chief of Syria’s Al Watan daily newspaper.— AFP
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