DAMASCUS, Syria — He is seen around town with his slim, elegant wife shopping for canned tuna or eating at a restaurant. He is pictured on the presidential palace grounds riding his bike in a jogging suit with his toddler son seated behind him.
Compared with his famously tough, aloof father, 39-year-old Bashar Assad has sought to project himself as the people’s president, committed to reform, improving Syrians’ quality of life and bringing his country into the 21st century.
The man who succeeded his late father in July 2000, with the constitution amended to qualify him, has said it is possible to have free elections in Syria one day.
“Definitely. Definitely. We’re going to change,” Mr. Assad told visiting American editors in May. “We haven’t made great progress. I think the road is still long ahead of us.”
The tall former eye doctor is one of a new breed of youngish Arab leaders partly educated abroad, familiar with cyberspace and eager to embrace globalization. But Syrians close to him say he is slowed by the powerful old guard that brought him to power and by Syrians who live off the country’s corrupt system.
Syria’s educational system churns out far more bureaucrats than entrepreneurs. Syrians who study overseas are reluctant to return because they value their civil rights and living standards. A Syrian government minister makes $350 a month.
Born September 11, 1965, Mr. Assad graduated from Damascus University with a medical degree in 1988. He then trained at the Tishrin military hospital in Damascus for four years before going to London to specialize in ophthalmology.
He returned to Syria in 1994 immediately after his older brother, Basel, widely believed to have been his father’s first choice as heir, died in an auto accident. Although the younger Mr. Assad reportedly had little interest in politics, he assumed his brother’s role, joined the military and was promoted to colonel in 1999.
After Hafez Assad’s death on June 10, 2000, the rubber-stamp parliament lowered the minimum age for president to 34 from 40 and elected Bashar Assad unanimously on July 17, 2000.
Fluent in Arabic, English and French, Mr. Assad married Asma Akhras, a financial analyst and graduate of King’s College in London, in December 2000. Their son, Hafez, turns 3 in December, and daughter Zein has her first birthday this month.
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