Bashar Al-Assad

Mideast Syria_Lea(1).jpg

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy for Syria, meets with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, July 9, 2012. (AP Photo/SANA)

20120709-183707-pic-248878108.jpg

Kofi Annan, United Nations-Arab League special envoy to Syria, met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Syria, on Monday. Mr. Annan said the two reached an understanding on a "framework" for peace that will now be presented to opposition forces. (SANA photographs via Associated Press)

Mideast Syria_Live.jpg

International envoy Kofi Annan (left) meets July 9, 2012, with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Syria. (Associated Press/SANA)

ASSAD.jpg

** FILE ** In a March 30, 2011, file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, addresses the Parliament, in Damascus, Syria. A Turkish newspaper says Assad, speaking in an exclusive interview, has expressed regret over the shooting down of a Turkish jet by his forces. (AP Photo/SANA, file)

SYRIA.jpg

** FILE ** Syrian security forces officers hold portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad from the windows of their building, which was destroyed after a car bomb exploded near the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, in a suburb of Damascus, Syria, Thursday June 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

APTOPIX Mideast Leban_Lea.jpg

Protesters chant slogans against the Syrian regime and Russia's support of President Bashar Assad, seen in a poster with a shoe on his face, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on Sunday, June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Mideast Lebanon Syria_Lea.jpg

Protesters chant slogans against the Syrian regime and Russia's support of President Bashar Assad as they hold a burned banner depicting Mr. Assad (right) and his brother, Maher Assad (left), in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on Sunday, June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

20120617-205023-pic-893371001.jpg

Protesters chant slogans against the Syrian regime and Russia's support of President Bashar Assad as they burn a banner Sunday depicting Mr. Assad, his brother, Maher Assad, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the port city of Sidon, Lebanon. (Associated Press)

Mideast Syria_Lea.jpg

A Syrian chants slogans during a protest against Syrian President Bashar Assad after prayers on the outskirts of Idlib, Syria, on Friday, June 8, 2012. (AP Photo)

20120603-182348-pic-786978431.jpg

Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech in Damascus on Sunday. He denied responsibility for the massacre in Houla last month. (Associated Press)