Basel al-Assad

Basel al-Assad was the older brother of Bashar al-Assad, the former president of Syria. He was groomed from a young age to inherit the family’s political legacy and was favored by their father, Hafez al-Assad. Tragically, Basel died in a car accident in 1994, an event that led Bashar, who was pursuing a career in ophthalmology, to return to Syria and ultimately assume the presidency after their father's death in 2000.