Whilst there are increasing calls to now "do" the same thing in and to Syria to what was done to Libya over the last months - culminating in the dictator Gadaffi being killed - not all that much is known about President Assad. He certainly isn't a barking mad, erratic individual as Gadaffi clearly was.
The Telegraph (in London) met with Assad and conveys an "interesting" portrait of the Syrian leader....
"When you go to see an Arab ruler, you expect vast, over-the-top palaces, battalions of guards, ring after ring of security checks and massive, deadening protocol. You expect to wait hours in return for a few stilted minutes in a gilded reception room, surrounded by officials, flunkies and state TV cameras. You expect a monologue, not a conversation. Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, was quite different.
We drove straight up to a single-storey building the size of a large suburban bungalow. The President was waiting in the hall to meet us.
We drove straight up to a single-storey building the size of a large suburban bungalow. The President was waiting in the hall to meet us.
In his small study, Assad was wearing jeans. It was Friday, the main protest day in Syria. But the man at the centre of it all, the man they wanted to destroy, looked pretty relaxed.
He thought the protests were diminishing. But the opposition appears to have been energised by Muammar Gaddafi's demise.
Yet Assad still has a number of cards that Libya's recently deceased ruler never possessed. Unlike Libya, the country is neither religiously nor ethnically homogeneous. The regime appears still to be persuading many of Syria's Christian and Alawite minority - together with some in the Sunni majority - that it is their best choice.
On Thursday night, the beginning of the Muslim weekend, Damascus's Old City was heaving with people having a good time. Men and women were mixing freely. Alcohol was widely available. A pair of Christian Orthodox priests walked through the crowded alleys and small Christian shrines were tucked away in the corners. The regime is successfully pushing the message that all this is at risk. ''I don't like Assad, but I am worried that what follows could be worse,'' one of the partygoers said.
Assad himself could not be further from a ranting Gaddafi-like Arab dictator. His English is perfect - he lived for two years in London, where he met his wife.
In conversation he was open, even at times frank. ''Many mistakes,'' he admitted, had been made by the security forces - although no one, it seems, has been brought to book for them.
A former president of the Syrian Computer Society, he sometimes explained things in computer terms. Comparing Syria's leadership with that of a Western country, he said, was like comparing a Mac with a PC.
''Both computers do the same job, but they don't understand each other,'' he said. ''You have to translate according to my operating system, or culture.''
Assad lives in a relatively small house in a normal, albeit guarded, street. He believes that his modest lifestyle is another component of his appeal.
''There is a legitimacy according to elections and there is popular legitimacy,'' he said. ''The first component of popular legitimacy is your personal life.
''It is very important how you live. I live a normal life. I drive my own car, we have neighbours, I take my kids to school. That's why I am popular. It is very important to live this way - that is the Syrian style.''
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