Death
By the late 1990s, Assad increasingly suffered from ill health. American diplomats said that that Assad found it difficult to remain focused and projected weariness during their meetings. It was speculated that Assad was incapable of functioning for more than two hours a day. However, his spokesperson did not respond to these speculations, and Assad's official routine in 1999 had no significant change from that of the previous decade. Assad continued to have meetings and traveled abroad occasionally; most notably he visited Moscow in July 1999. Assad's government was accustomed to working without his direct involvement in day-to-day affairs. On 10 June 2000 Assad died from a heart attack he suffered while speaking on the telephone with Lebanese prime minister Salim al-Hoss. His funeral was held three days later. Hafez al-Assad is buried with his son Bassel in a mausoleum in his hometown of Qardaha.
Read more about this topic: Hafez Al-Assad
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
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So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.”
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And another at my feet;
And lay my bent bow at my side,
Which was my music sweet;
And make my grave of gravel and green,
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