Photo Gallery Tide Turns Against Assad
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu shown meeting in Damascus in January. Shortly afterwards protests began in Syria. They have since escalated into a bloody uprising, and the Arab League is fed up with Assad's role in the violence.
Here, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is shown with Qatar's 59-year-old Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in May. The emir is spearheading the Arab League's efforts to halt violence in Syria.
German President Christian Wullf (right), and his wife Bettina Wulff (left), during a state visit in Sept. 2010 with Qatar's emir and his wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned.
This photo provided by Syria's official news agency SANA shows Syrian President Bashar Assad listening to a morning sermon on Nov. 6. It is feared that November will be the bloodiest month yet since the uprising began around March.
Pro-regime demonstrators are pictured here in Damascus on Nov. 14. They shouted slogans against the Arab League, which Assad has accused of conspiring against his country after they voted to suspend its membership due to his violent crackdown on anti-governemt protesters.
Here, and amateur video still shows a Syrian tank burning in Daraa with a young boy in the foreground.
Until recently, Syria's neighbors have done little more than criticize Damascus and threaten to impose sanctions. They had feared that the country, divided both ethnically and along religious lines, could descend into a civil war, much like Lebanon in the 1970s and Iraq after the fall of Baghdad in 2003. Here, a police officer keeps watch at a pro-government event.
Assad critics demonstrate in this undated handout photo. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched the sharpest attack against the Syrian leader, saying: "Bashar Assad should see the tragic ends of the ones who declared war against their own people," adding that history tends to remember men like Assad as "bloodsuckers."
