President Shukri al-Quwatli at the tomb of the Muslim caliph Saladin, in 1955. Second from left is Mahmud Riad, the Egyptian Ambassador to Syria, followed by Sheikh Hasan Taghelbi, Interior Minister Ali Buzzo, Prime Minister Said al-Ghazzi, and President Quwatli.

President Hafez al-Assad of Syria, with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi in 1978.

The presidents of Syria, Algeria, and Egypt in the early 1970s.

King Faysal of Saudi Arabia on a state visit to Syria in 1974, being greeted by President Hafez al-Assad.

President Hafez al-Assad at the funeral of King Faysal of Saudi Arabia in 1975. Surrounding Faysal’s successor, King Khaled, are President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, President Assad of Syria, President Houarie Boumeddien of Algeria, and Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

Presidents Hafez al-Assad and Richard Nixon in Syria in 1974.

President Hafez al-Assad (praying) next to Fahd of Saudi Arabia (then prince) and King Faysal, at the Grand Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in the mid-1980s. Standing in the back row are Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas, and seated is Syria’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Kaftaro.

President Hafez al-Assad at a dinner in honor of US President Richard Nixon, who was visiting Damascus in 1974.

President Hafez al-Assad in Paris, with French President Valery Giscard D’Estaing in 1976.

President Hafez al-Assad in Shtaura, near the Syrian-Lebanese border, with Lebanese President Suleiman Franjiyyieh in 1976, at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.