Hasani ruled Syria with three different cabinets from February 1928 until November 1931.

He rules Syria and a good portion of Jordan and Saudi as well.

Bashar al-Assad did not grow up intending to rule Syria - or Lebanon.

Abdallah never abandoned his ambition to rule Syria.

Her father, she said, was a communications minister under Hafez al-Assad, the late dictator who ruled Syria for three decades.

President Assad has ruled Syria since he came to power in a coup in 1970.

He continues to rule Syria with unchallenged authority, and in the last presidential referendum, in 1991, he won 99.9 percent of the ballots cast.

He was also made commander in chief of the armed forces, and leader of the Ba'ath Party which has ruled Syria since 1961.

Hafez al-Assad, the iron-willed military man who ruled Syria for three decades, was in power just a few years when he laid the cornerstone.

He took power in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 40 years.