| Assef Shawkat آصف شوكت |
|
|---|---|
| Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 8 August 2011 |
|
| President | Bashar al-Assad |
| Preceded by | Dawoud Rajiha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1950 (age 61–62) Al-Madhameh, Tartus, Syria |
| Nationality | Syrian |
| Occupation | Head of Military Intelligence (2005-2009) deputy-Chief of Staff (2009-2011) deputy-Minister of Defense (2011) |
| Religion | Islam[1][2] |
| Military service | |
| Rank | General |
General Assef Shawkat (Arabic: آصف شوكت) (born 1950) is the deputy Minister of Defense of Syria since September 2011. He is married to Bashar Assad's sister Bushra and is from the Sunni sect.[1] He previously served as the army's deputy chief of staff from July 2009 to September 2011. He then bypassed the position of chief of staff to become deputy Minister of Defense.[2] Shawkat was considered one of the president's top security chiefs, however, he was replaced in 2010 as head of Military Intelligence and made deputy chief-of-staff of the armed forces. Although he was also promoted, opposition figures said he was seen to have been at fault in the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh in an area of Damascus that fell under his responsibility. He is a member of President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle.[3] Since the appointment of General Dawoud Rajiha to head the Ministry of Defense, Shawkat is an important figure in the Ministry of Defense, though the army is under the de facto control of Maher al-Assad, the president's brother.[4][5]
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Assef Shawkat was born in al-Madehleh village of Tartus in 1950 and grew up in modest comfort. In the late 1970s, he volunteered for service in the Syrian army. By the mid-1980s, Shawkat had risen to prominence among officers of his generation, yet he still had no official status in the Syrian state.
In the mid 1980s Assef Shawkat was introduced to Hafez Assad's daughter Bushra al-Assad. Studying pharmacy at the time at Damascus University and ten years his junior, Bushra had been noted for being intelligent and well mannered. Bushra was considered the most eligible female in Damascus, and some commentators express their surprise at her choice, given that Shawkat was a young officer of modest means whose only asset was his university education. It is not known how the two were introduced but it has been reported that Bushra's younger brother Basil al-Assad was strongly opposed to their relationship. He considered Shawkat as being too old for her, and lustful for her money. Basil pointed out that although an Alawite, Shawkat was of inferior standing and should never become an in-law of the Assad family. When Shawkat insisted, Basil had him arrested. Basil Assad put Shawkat behind bars four times to prevent the couple from meeting. On January 21, 1994, however, Basil died in a car crash en route to Damascus Airport.
One year later, Bushra eloped with Shawkat, married him, and they rented a residence in the Mezzeh district of Damascus. She did not obtain her father's blessing nor that of the Assad family. A few days later, President Assad stationed a guard at their door, presumably for their protection. When rumors of their marriage began to spread, Assad decided to summon the couple back to the Palace. He gave them his blessing and Shawkat became Assad's only son-in-law. To meet the demands of his new position, he was promoted in rank to Major-General.
During this time, while Shawkat was increasing his familiarity with the family, he began to befriend Bushra's brother Bashar al-Assad (now president of Syria), an ophthalmologist who recently returned from London to fill in his late brother's position as heir apparent. The two men became good friends and with time, Bashar began to rely heavily on Shawkat for companionship and security.
Having faith in his abilities, President Assad instructed Shawkat to support Bashar and "never part his side." Shawkat complied, and by 1998, was rumored to have become the strongest man in Syria. When General Hikmat al-Shihabi retired from office in January 1998, Shawkat's friend General Ali Aslan took his place as chief of staff. After receiving the blessing of Hafez, he was welcomed into the family and built a close relationship with Bashar. Bushra reportedly nurtured the relationship through her influential role as the president's secretary. Former Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam said Gen Shawkat was a "smart, cultivated, and courageous officer with great ambitions", who had established ties with intelligence chiefs and other powerbrokers. On June 10, 2000, Hafez al-Assad suddenly died after a heart attack. Since then, Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father as President of Syria, has relied heavily on Shawkat to strengthen the regime. For months, rumors had circulated that Shawkat was the strong-man of Syria behind the scenes, and they were confirmed when he stood by Bashar's side at the funeral service, accepting condolences for the late President. Ultimately, however, Shawkat's power is derived from the Assad family. He has no power base of his own. In 2001, Assef was named Deputy Director of Syrian Military Intelligence, one of the main branches of the Syrian intelligence apparatus. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, Gen Shawkat was one of the president's main liaisons to intelligence agencies in the US and Europe and helped set up a US intelligence operation in Syria, which was later shut down after relations between the two countries soured. In 2005, Maher and Shawkat were both mentioned in a preliminary report by UN investigators as one of the people who might have planned the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. The next year, Gen Shawkat was named a Specially Designated National (SDN) by the US, allowing his assets to be frozen. It said he had "been a key architect of Syria's domination of Lebanon, as well as a fundamental contributor to Syria's long-standing policy to foment terrorism". From 2005 to 2009, he assumed control of the entire Military Intelligence apparatus. In July 2009 he was upgraded to the rank of General and named as deputy Chief of Staff.
Sources within Syria's opposition reported Sunday that General Assef Shawkat, Syrian military intelligence chief and President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, was shot to death during an argument with his aide, General Ali Mamlouk.[6]
The report has not been confirmed.
According to the report, an argument broke out between Shawkat and Mamlouk at the military intelligence chief's office. At some point, Shawkat pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Mamlouk, who proceeded to take his own gun out and shoot his boss. Shawkat was secretly evacuated to a military hospital in Damascus, where, the report said, he died of his wounds.[7]