Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was an Iraqi politician and Army Field Marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and was regarded as the closest advisor and deputy under President Saddam Hussein. He led the Iraqi insurgent Naqshbandi Army.
Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician who has served as the 19th president of Syria since 17 July 2000. In addition,he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party,which nominally espouses a neo-Ba'athist ideology. His father and predecessor was General Hafez al-Assad,whose presidency between 1971 and 2000 marked the transfiguration of Syria from a republican state into a dynastic dictatorship tightly controlled by an Alawite-dominated elite composed of the armed forces and the Mukhabarat,who are loyal to the Assad family.
Farouk al-Sharaa is a Syrian politician and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent officials in the Syrian government and served as foreign minister of Syria from 1984 until 2006 when he became Vice President of Syria.
Hadi al-Amiri is the head and secretary general of the Badr Organization,a Shiite organization based in Iraq,he heads the Shiite political organization Badr and his armed group,the Badr Brigade.
Maher al-Assad is a Syrian general and commander of the Republican Guard and the army's elite Fourth Armoured Division,which together with Syria's Military Intelligence form the core of the country's security forces. He is also a member of the Central Committee of the Ba'ath Party's Syrian Regional Branch. He is thought by some to be the second-most powerful man in Syria after his brother Bashar,the current President.
Walid Mohi Edine al Muallem was a Syrian diplomat and Ba'ath Party member who served as foreign minister from 2006 to 2020 and as deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2020.
Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki,also known as Jawad al-Maliki,is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president of Iraq from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. Al-Maliki began his political career as a Shia dissident under Saddam Hussein's in the late 1970s and rose to prominence after he fled a death sentence into exile for 24 years. During his time abroad,he became a senior leader of the Islamic Dawa Party,coordinated the activities of anti-Saddam guerrillas and built relationships with Iranian and Syrian officials whose help he sought in overthrowing Saddam. Al-Maliki worked closely with United States and coalition forces in Iraq following their departure by the end of 2011.
Diplomatic relations between Syria and the United States are currently non-existent;they were suspended in 2012 after the onset of the Syrian Civil War. Priority issues between the two states include the Arab–Israeli conflict,the Golan Heights annexation,and the Iraq War.
Iraq–Syria relations are the bilateral relations/diplomatic relations between the Sovereign states of Iraq and Syria. Since both nations are neighbours,they share the Iraq–Syria border. Relations are marked by long-shared cultural and political links,as well as former regional rivalry. The two countries took their present form after the Sykes–Picot Agreement to dismember the Ottoman Empire into British and French spheres of influence after World War I.
Bouthaina Shaaban is a Syrian politician and political and media adviser to the President of Syria,Bashar al-Assad. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic,between 2002 and 2008,and has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
The al-Assad family,also known as the Assad dynasty,has ruled Syria since General Hafez al-Assad became President of Syria in 1971 under the Ba'ath Party. After his death,in June 2000,he was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and various domestic and foreign forces that oppose both the Syrian government and each other,in varying combinations.
Rami Makhlouf is a Syrian businessman and the maternal cousin of president Bashar al-Assad. At the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011,he was considered to be Syria's richest and one of the most powerful man. According to Syrian analysts,he is part of al-Assad's inner circle and no foreign company could do business in Syria at the time without his consent and partnership.
International reactions to the Syrian civil war ranged from support for the government to calls for the government to dissolve. The Arab League,United Nations and Western governments in 2011 quickly condemned the Syrian government's response to the protests which later evolved into the Syrian civil war as overly heavy-handed and violent. Many Middle Eastern governments initially expressed support for the government and its "security measures",but as the death toll mounted,especially in Hama,they switched to a more balanced approach,criticizing violence from both government and protesters. Russia and China vetoed two attempts at United Nations Security Council sanctions against the Syrian government.
Russia has supported the administration of incumbent President Bashar al-Assad of Syria since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011:politically,with military aid,and with direct military involvement. The 2015 deployment to Syria marked the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1991 that Russia entered an armed conflict outside the borders of the former Soviet Union.
Syria and Iran are strategic allies. Syria is usually called Iran's "closest ally",with ideological conflict between the Arab nationalism ideology of Syria's secular ruling Ba'ath Party and the Islamic Republic of Iran's pan-Islamist policy notwithstanding. Iran and Syria have had a strategic alliance ever since the Iran–Iraq War,when Syria sided with non-Arab Iran against neighbouring Ba'ath-ruled Iraq. The two countries shared a common animosity towards then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and coordination against the United States and Israel.
Dhu al-Himma Shalish was the first cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and head of presidential security. He was part of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle.
Ba'athism,also spelled Baathism,is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation and development of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a socialist revolutionary government. The ideology is officially based on the theories of the Syrian intellectuals Michel Aflaq,Zaki al-Arsuzi,and Salah al-Din al-Bitar. Baathist leaders of the modern era include the former leader of Iraq,Saddam Hussein,former President of Syria,Hafez Assad and his son,the current President of Syria,Bashar Assad.
The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019,also known as the Caesar Act,is United States legislation that sanctions the Syrian government,including Syrian president Bashar al-Assad,for war crimes against the Syrian population. The Act was signed into law by President Trump in December 2019,and came into force on June 17,2020.
Jaysh al-Mu'ammal,also known as Liwa al-Mu'ammal or as the Popular Mobilization Forces' 99th Brigade,is a Shia Islamist Iraqi private militia that is led by Sa'ad Sawar and has fought in the Syrian Civil War and Iraqi Civil War. Founded as a splinter faction of the Sadrist Movement,Jaysh al-Mu'ammal is supported by Iran and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
