Latest news with #HafezAssad
Al Bawaba
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Video: Man organizes a barbecue next to Hafez Assad's grave
Published May 27th, 2025 - 08:06 GMT ALBAWABA - A video circulated online showing a young man from the Qardaha city in Syria holding a barbecue party next to the grave of Hafez Assad. The man appeared in the video standing with a group of his friends next to Hafez Assad's grave in the Qardaha area of Syria, then he prepared a barbecue and placed the meat on it. In the clip, the Syrian man was heard saying: "I am doing BBQ over the grave of Hafez," then he tells the camera person: "Come and see the meat. I'm doing a barbecue next to Hafez's grave." Then he mockingly speaks to the former Syrian president: "Hafez, if you can hear me, come and grab a bite." Since the fall of the Syrian Assad regime, which lasted for over 50 years, on Dec. 8, 2024, Syrians have been destroying all the statues that have any ties with the ex-rulers, like Hafez Assad or Bashar Assad. They also tore down all pictures and posters from the streets and government institutions, or offices. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
Al Bawaba
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Video: Syrians dig out Hafez Assad's grave
ALBAWAB - A new video circulating across social media sparked controversy after it showcased several unknown individuals who dug out the grave of Syria's former president and politician, Hafez Assad. According to several local reports, the grave, which is located in Qardaha in the Latakia Governorate, was dug out, including Hafez's bones, sparking widespread debate on the Syrian side of social media. Many social media users expressed their anger towards the incident, claiming that despite opposing political views, these individuals should've refrained from disrespecting a resting corpse. They called the move "vile" and "inhumane." On the contrary, several others commended the unknown individuals because Hafez Assad had a hand in the 1982 Hama massacre. Hama witnessed a clash between the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies paramilitary force, which lasted 27 days, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Hafez Assad ruled as the 18th president of Syria from 1971 until he died in 2000, after suffering from a sudden heart attack. He was born in Al Qardahah, Syria, and passed away in Damascus before being buried in his hometown. Hafez's son, Bashar Assad, who succeeded him as the 19th president of Syria, was recently ousted in 2024 by Ahmed Al Sharaa's rebel army and fled to Moscow, Russia, alongside his family, putting an end to the long reign of the notorious Assad regime.
Arab News
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
1989 - The Taif peace pact for Lebanon
PARIS: The Taif Agreement was the outcome of a concerted attempt by Saudi Arabia to bring an end to the Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975. Other parties involved in the process included Syria's President Hafez Assad, the US administration, and the various Lebanese factions fighting in the war. Saudi authorities wanted to find a solution that involved all of those involved, to halt the war and improve upon the 1943 Lebanese National Pact. That pact was an unwritten agreement between Lebanese President Bechara El-Khoury and Prime Minister Riad Al-Solh that established an independent Lebanon as a multi-confessional state. It represented a power-sharing arrangement between Christians and Muslims, whereby the president was always required to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the parliament a Shiite. The powers handed down in this way were of particular benefit to Lebanon's Christians. The civil war required an adjustment to this equilibrium. It also required an adjustment in Lebanon's relations with the Arab world, during a period in which Assad was growing more powerful with the aim of becoming more influential and hegemonic in Lebanon. Beginning in the late 1970s, Saudi Arabia had been a part of all Arab and international efforts to end the war in Lebanon. The Taif Agreement was fathered by Hussein El-Husseini, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament. He visited Saudi Arabia, where he was hosted in Taif under the guidance of the Foreign Minister, Prince Saud bin Faisal, and a Lebanese friend of the Kingdom, a businessman named Rafik Hariri who would later serve as Lebanon's prime minister from 1992 to 1998 and 2000 to 2004. The deal ultimately reached included political reforms that gave full power to the Council of Ministers and greater power to the Muslim prime minister, compared with the previous arrangement whereby power was concentrated in the office of the Christian president. It also established special relations between Lebanon and Syria, and a framework to begin the withdrawal of Syrian forces from the country. However, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa later denied any commitment had been made to Prince Saud for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon. It was only after the assassination of Hariri in 2005 that Syrian forces finally pulled out. The Taif Agreement was approved by the Lebanese Parliament on Nov. 5, 1989, the same day Rene Moawad became the country's president. He held the office for only 18 days before he was killed by a car bomb that claimed his life and 23 others. Prior to the Taif Agreement, Saudi Arabia had pushed for peace conferences in Geneva and Lausanne, in 1983 and 1984 respectively, that failed to end the war. However, Saudi authorities continued to mediate, with the involvement of the Arab League Tripartite Committee to Lebanon, under the chairmanship of Prince Saud. Fighting between Maronites and Muslims in Lebanon begins when suspected PLO gunmen attack a Christian church in East Beirut, killing 4 people. Phalangists retaliate, killing 30 Palestinians on a bus, triggering widespread fighting. Arab League summit in Riyadh calls for end to the civil war and creates the peacekeeping Arab Deterrent Force. Start of the Hundred Days War in Beirut between Christian militias and the mainly Syrian troops of the Arab Deterrent Force. Israel invades southern Lebanon to halt cross-border attacks by the PLO. Christian Phalangist Bachir Gemayel, former leader of Lebanese Forces Maronite militia, is elected president. Gemayel and 26 other high-ranking Phalangists are killed by a bomb planted by a Maronite Christian. Departing president Amine Gemayal defies precedent and appoints a fellow Maronite Christian, Gen. Michel Aoun, as prime minister, a role traditionally reserved for a Muslim. Aoun declares war of liberation against Syrian occupation. Taif Agreement is reached but opposed by Aoun. Taif Agreement ratified and parliament elects Maronite Christian Rene Moawad as Lebanon's 13th president. Moawad assassinated by unknown assailants. Aoun driven into exile in France by Syrian forces. Aoun returns to Lebanon after Syrian troops finally withdraw. Aoun elected president of Lebanon, remains in office until his term ends in 2022. The representatives on the committee from the other members of the tripartite, Morocco and Algeria, were their foreign ministers, Abdellatif Filali and Sid Ahmed Ghozali respectively. They were joined by the Arab League's special envoy to Lebanon, Lakhdar Brahimi. Syria's President Assad, excluded from the committee, was enraged. During the last meeting of the committee, in Rabat in 1988, before the Taif process began, the three ministers summoned Al-Sharaa, the Syrian foreign minister, and told him they had proof Syria had been arming both Prime Minister Michel Aoun's army and the Lebanese Forces, led by Samir Geagea. Aoun had been appointed interim prime minister that year by departing president Amine Gemayel, who did not accept Assad's diktats. Assad's forces responded by pounding the Christian stronghold of Achrafieh. Aoun, protected by French Ambassador Rene Ala, then left for France to begin his long exile. Brahimi, the Arab League envoy, enlisted Paris-based Dr. Ghassan Salame, a Lebanese professor of international relations, as an advisor to help establish a ceasefire agreement and prepare for a meeting with Lebanese deputies. Concurrently, Brahimi, Salame, and other deputies worked on drafting a text for the deputies to approve and adopt. The first report from the committee, issued in mid-July 1989, was perceived by the Syrians as hostile. Assad met Algeria's President Chadli Bendjedid in Algiers and accused Brahimi of anti-Syrian bias. Prince Saud independently continued his attempts to persuade Syria to agree to a ceasefire. As the various efforts to end the war continued, Saudi authorities worked through two negotiators: Hariri and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who between 1983 and 2005 was the Kingdom's ambassador to the United States. This marked the start of Hariri's involvement in Lebanese politics. King Fahd entrusted Prince Bandar to direct the efforts to find a solution for the situation in Lebanon, and Hariri shuttled between various capital cities to organize a conference in the Kingdom to discuss reforms and the election of a president. International pressure, and the continuing efforts of Prince Saud, eventually compelled Syria to accept a ceasefire agreement, paving the way for the drafting of the text for the Taif Agreement by several deputies. Hariri managed to persuade the Lebanese deputies to come to the gathering in Taif. They agreed to correct the balance of power in Lebanon, giving more influence to the Council of Ministers and the Muslim prime minister. However, Assad disliked Hariri and resisted his appointment as Lebanon's prime minister for years. Eventually, Assad met Hariri on several occasions, though when Hariri did eventually become prime minister, Assad insisted on having a say in the appointment of certain government ministers. Saudi Arabia took the initiative and helped to get the Lebanese Parliament operational, since previous negotiations with militias had failed to achieve peace. Eventually, the Taif Agreement was concluded and implemented but Aoun never accepted its terms. Following the assassination of President Moawad after just 18 days in office, as he returned from Lebanese Independence Day celebrations, Deputy Elias Hrawi, who was favored by the Syrians, was appointed his successor. One unforgettable sentence uttered by a brilliant French diplomat, having served in Lebanon, still rings true in view of the disastrous situation that has prevailed there for the past several years: 'The political class who made the civil war in Lebanon is still in power, but it cannot succeed in ruling the country.'
Arab News
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Netanyahu's jets or Ortagus' conditions
When US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus was born on July 10, 1982, the scene was as follows: Gen. Ariel Sharon's tanks were surrounding Beirut from all sides and his jets were bombing the capital without mercy. The general of the city at the time was Yasser Arafat, who was championing the Palestinian cause. Arafat sought to fight on for another six months before taking a decision over what to do next, recalled Hani Al-Hassan, who was in the battle. Back then, Lebanese Prime Minister Shafik Al-Wazzan would contact King Fahd, who would in turn contact Ronald Reagan to secure a drop of water or a spark of electricity to the first Arab capital that Israel ever besieged. Hezbollah had not been born yet, but it would be formed through an Iranian initiative and Syria's help in wake of the barbaric Israeli invasion. Back then, Hafez Assad was in power in Syria. The image is different now. His heir, Bashar, is living in 'humanitarian' asylum in Russia and Ahmed Al-Sharaa is the new ruler in Syria. Back then, Beirut realized it had to make a difficult and painful choice: either suffer at the hands of Sharon's jets or take the advice of the American envoy of Lebanese origin, Philip Habib. The game was obvious. Whenever the city showed resistance, the jets would strike again to discipline it and force it to agree to the US envoy's conditions. Initially, the situation was compared to Stalingrad and Hanoi, but the siege and breaking of the balance of power left Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization no choice but to flee by ship. And so, the Palestinian cause sailed toward a new exile. Whenever Beirut showed resistance, the jets would strike again to discipline it and force it to agree to the US envoy's conditions Ghassan Charbel The world has changed immensely since Ortagus' birth. The Soviet Union collapsed and the world came under the rule of the sole global power: the US. Osama bin Laden launched his attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad and Iranian influence flooded the region. Some two decades later, Hafez Assad's statues were toppled in Damascus and the leaders of Hamas, including Yahya Sinwar, who launched the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, were assassinated, along with Hassan Nasrallah and several of his Hezbollah colleagues. When Ortagus arrived in Beirut last week, the 'general' of the White House, Donald Trump, had just launched a trade war whose results cannot be predicted by the greatest of experts, a terrified Europe was criticizing America's betrayal of its allies and China was assessing the extent of the challenge ahead. Meanwhile, small countries were preparing for rising prices of goods, poverty and great unrest. While Vladimir Putin was rejoicing at his victory in Ukraine, with American blessings, US jets were bombing Houthi rocket caches and tunnels in retaliation for their attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthis were deluded into believing that the Americans would simply leave the marine waterways under the control of the factions and their Iranian arsenal. And at a time when Iran could not save its proxies, Tehran had to reply to Trump's letter. This is not just about agreeing to dismantle Iran's nuclear dream, it goes beyond that to abandoning the idea of becoming a major country in the region that boasts about holding the keys to war and peace in four countries. Trump threatened Iran with 'very bad things' if it did not surrender the management of the region and its sorrows to the Americans because it has no right to them in its delusion of being a 'major country in the region.' When Ortagus arrived in Beirut, Benjamin Netanyahu's forces were continuing to tear Gaza apart. No people since the Second World War have suffered as much as the Gazans and more is still to come. Evacuation orders keep coming and Hamas is holding on to the remaining hostages, while Netanyahu turns the whole of Gaza into a hostage that is drowning in blood, rubble and despair. The number of Palestinians who will be released in swaps is far less than the number of graves Netanyahu has dug for the people of Gaza. Aoun, Salam and Berri know that this is a phase of painful choices in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria Ghassan Charbel Israel is drawing a security belt by fire in Gaza, the same way it did when it decimated Lebanese border villages. It is demanding a similar security belt inside Syrian territories and does not hesitate to warn Turkiye against deepening its influence in Syria. Joseph Aoun, Nawaf Salam and Nabih Berri have very difficult tasks ahead of them. They know what it means for the war to erupt again in Gaza despite the ceasefire and mediations. They also know the extent of the free rein that Trump has given Netanyahu. They are aware that, this time, the situation demands more than just applying weak bandages to inflamed wounds. They know what it means when Israel warns that it will no longer allow what it perceives as danger to lurk by its borders. The American-Israeli demand is clear: disarming factions, not just persuading them to agree to a ceasefire. They know that waiting is not the best advice and that dangers lie ahead. The Lebanese are preoccupied with the American visitor. They dig up her history to learn more about where she has worked before. A commentator, spokeswoman and analyst. They know that the conclusions the beautiful visitor will draw will impact the situation in Lebanon. The country cannot withstand the possibility of a return to war. Hezbollah cannot go to war, especially after seeing the developments unfold in Yemen and Syria. Israel and the US are pressuring to take Gaza out of the military aspect of the conflict with Israel. They are also pressuring to take Lebanon and Syria out of it as well. Aoun, Salam and Berri are aware of the severity of the situation and the major imbalance in the balance of power. They know that this is a phase of painful choices in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. They recall that, when Ortagus was born, they had to choose between Sharon's jets and Habib's conditions. They know that today they need to choose between Netanyahu's jets and Ortagus' conditions. They know that wrong choices have led to catastrophes in the past. Israel today is more barbaric than ever and they will naturally wait and see what Trump has to say to Netanyahu when they meet. This article first appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat.
Al Bawaba
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Bashar Assad's son reveals details about fleeing Syria
ALBAWABA - Bashar Assad's son Hafez Assad took the internet by storm after an account claiming to be him revealed details about the family's last moments before fleeing to Moscow due to the fall of the notorious Assad regime. A social media account that goes by the name of "Hafez al-Assad" wrote a series of paragraphs then quickly disappeared sparking speculation and debate about the matter in question. According to American-Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, the details in question were first shared on Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) and Telegram. She further claimed that the account wasn't an imposter and actually belonged to Hafez. She took to Facebook and wrote, "I can confirm this account is his and not an imposter: We've been in communication recently, and I was aware that he was going to create this Telegram channel and his also account on X." Hafez Assad's alleged account claimed that "There was no plan, not even a backup, to leave Damascus, let alone Syria." He added further, "Over the past 14 years, Syria has endured hardships" and that whoever wanted to escape, would've done it in those years. In the second part of the statement shared on social media, Hafez Assad's account added that he visited Moscow before the fall of the Assad Regime, specifically in November 2024 to finish his PhD and visit his mother, Asma Assad who underwent bone transplant surgery in summer due to suffering from cancer. He added that he was supposed to stay in Moscow to complete his studies but had to go back to Damascus to visit his father Bashar Assad and brother due to the deterioration of the situation in Syria on Dec. 1, 2024. His sister remained with his mother in Moscow. Hafez Assad then touched on the events that occurred on December 7 and 8 and added: "As for the events of Saturday, December 7 and 8, on Saturday morning my brother took a math exam at the Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology in Damascus, where he was studying, and he was preparing himself to return to work the next day, and my sister had booked a ticket to return to Damascus on Syrian Airlines on Sunday." He stated further that to prove that they didn't flee Syria back on December 7, Hafez went down to a park in Damascus, took a picture there, and posted it on his official Instagram account which had been deleted by the time of writing this article. ما بعرف شو بدي قلكم بس للمرة الالف يتم تدوال معلومة Fake ويتم نشرها وإعادة نشرها من اجل الايك وال Buzz حساب مايسمى @HafezAlassad هو حساب Fake واللي فتحو استخدم جواز سفر حافظ اللي لقوه بالبيت وتم تداوله عبر الانترنيت ، ولما عرفت ادارة ال X ذلك تم إغلاق الحساب 😂 الثبات…
