A regime divided – Trouble in Bashar al-Assad’s own ranks

In 1957 a young air-force officer from the highlands called Hafez al-Assad married a girl from the coast named Anisa Makhlouf. It seemed a good fit: Assad was ambitious; the Makhloufs were powerful. And indeed, after Assad took over in a coup in 1970 the two clans ran the country like a family business, propelling their esoteric Muslim sect, the Alawites, from Syria’s backwaters to the centre of power.

Half a century on, though, the partnership is unravelling. In a series of videos posted on Facebook Rami Makhlouf, Syria’s wealthiest tycoon, accused his cousin and Hafez’s son, President Bashar al-Assad, of confiscating his assets. Mr Makhlouf even complained, unironically, that the blood-soaked security forces, which he long sponsored, were treating his employees in “an inhumane way” and “attacking the people’s freedoms”.