Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a fellow secular Baathist like Assad, had been executed just six months earlier. But Syria’s then leader, who had succeeded his father Hafez seven years before, represented a stable contrast to the chaos engulfing neighboring Iraq. Assad met us without a large entourage, folding his long body into a chair at the head of the room. An armed man walks through the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria, on December 10, 2024. People inspect documents they found in the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, on December 9, 2024.

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Persons: Bashar al, Assad, Saddam Hussein, Syria’s, Hafez, Little, Ali Haj Suleiman, Assad wasn’t, Saddam, Bentley, Basat al, “, ”, Tariq, Hussein Malla, Basat al reeh, Falaqa, Ghaith, Asma, Bashar Assad, Zein, Karim Organizations: CNN, National Public, Lamborghini, Royce, Brotherhood, Syrian, Syrian Presidency Locations: Iraq, Damascus, Syria, Lebanon, Latakia, Turkey, Idlib, Iran, Russia, Saydnaya, Syrian, Hama, British, Gaza, Aleppo, Old City