Photo Gallery Wooing the Pariah
Syrian President Bashar Assad with his wife Asma in Paris: A strategist with options in the East and West
Assad with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev during a meeting in the Russian resort city of Sochi in August: SPIEGEL has learned that Syria is considering stationing "Iskander" ballistic missiles as a direct response to the systems Washington plans to install in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Partner Assad with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. In early August, Assad traveled to Iran to discuss the escalation of the nuclear weapons dispute.
Forty-seven-year-old dissident Yassin al-Hajj Salih: "I don't expect to be arrested again, but in Syria one can never know."
The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Bader Hassoun: Hassoun and Assad get together several times a year for scheduled one-on-one meetings. He says the complaints he hears from citizens often relate to rising inflation, corruption and unemployment. Hassoun, who sees himself as a modernizer, wants his country to open up and investors to come to Syria.
Hezbollah supporters parade in mourning of murdered terrorist Imad Mughniyah, who was killed in a car bombing. Israeli intelligence was suspected of having carried out the attack.
