Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad receives the full red-carpet treatment as he arrives at Heathrow with his wife Asma for the start of a three day visit in December 2002
During the visit he met prime minister Tony Blair at Downing Street and then subsequently Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace.
It was obviously a period of cordial relations between the two countries although this subsequently deteriorated as a brutal civil war raged in Syria involving chemical weapons and terrible violence. It culminated in his overthrow in 2024 and the family now reportedly live in Moscow under close Russian protection.
It was in many ways a nostalgic return for Assad. He works as an opthamologist in London between 1992 and 1994 meeting his future wife during this period’