Bashar Hafez al-Assad ( ,
Levantine pronunciation: ; born 11 September 1965) is the
President of Syria,
commander-in-chief of the
Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling
Ba'ath Party and Regional Secretary of
the party's branch in Syria. On 10 July 2000, he was elected president succeeding
Hafez al-Assad, his father, who had led Syria for 30 years and died in office a month prior. He was subsequently approved by the Syrian electorate once again in the uncontested
2007 election. On 16 July 2014, Bashar Assad was sworn in for a new seven-year term, after his victory in the controversial June
presidential election against two regime sanctioned candidates, the first contested presidential election in Ba'athist Syria's history.