FACT CHECK: Viral X Image Of Syr­i­an Pres­i­dent Bashar Al-Assad Is Not Recent

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FACT CHECK: Viral X Image Of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad Is Not Recent

A viral image shared on X claims to show Syr­i­an Pres­i­dent Bashar al-Assad arriv­ing in Dam­as­cus fol­low­ing a vis­it to Rus­sia.

Ver­dict: False

The claim is false, as the image shows al-Assad vis­it­ing Abu Dhabi in March 2023, accord­ing to Aden Hura and Reuters, respec­tive­ly.

Fact Check:

The Krem­lin said Mon­day it still sup­ports al-Assad fol­low­ing attacks in Syr­ia by Islamist insur­gents, accord­ing to Reuters. Assad has vowed to crush the insur­gents who have seized con­trol of the Idlib province, the out­let report­ed.

The X image, viewed over 800,000 times as of writ­ing, claims to show al-Assad arriv­ing in Dam­as­cus fol­low­ing a vis­it to Rus­sia.

“Pres­i­dent Bashar al-Assad arrived in Dam­as­cus return­ing from Rus­sia,” the image’s cap­tion reads. In the image, al-Assad, dressed in a suit, can be seen dis­em­bark­ing from a plane.

The claim is false. Check Your Fact con­duct­ed a reverse image search and found the image fea­tured in a March 2023 arti­cle from the web­site, “Aden Hura.” Accord­ing to the same arti­cle, al-Assad vis­it­ed Abu Dhabi at the time. The Syr­i­an Pres­i­dent made an offi­cial vis­it to the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates with his wife, Reuters report­ed. His 2023 vis­it was pre­ced­ed by a 2022 vis­it, which was his first since the Syr­i­an civ­il war began in 2011, the out­let indi­cat­ed.

Like­wise, Check Your Fact found no cred­i­ble news reports to sup­port the claim. Actu­al­ly, the oppo­site is true. On Dec. 2, Mis­bar debunked the claim. The claim appears to have cir­cu­lat­ed online fol­low­ing unof­fi­cial media reports sug­gest­ing al-Assad had land­ed in Moscow amid attacks by oppo­si­tion fac­tions in Syr­ia, accord­ing to Mis­bar.

In addi­tion, the claim is not ref­er­enced on @Presidency_Sy, an X account that appears to be ded­i­cat­ed to the Syr­i­an pres­i­dent. While the account’s bio states it is an offi­cial account, the account is not ver­i­fied. (RELATED: Did Sadiq Khan Say Farm­ers Protest­ing In The UK Is ‘Anoth­er Exam­ple Of Racism?’)

al-Assad has been pres­i­dent of Syr­ia since July 2000, accord­ing to Al Jazeera.