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The revolt is suppressed by the military, whom rights organisations accuse of killing tens of thousands of civilians.
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Israel invades Lebanon and attacks the Syrian army, forcing it to withdraw from several areas. Israel attacks the PLO base in Beirut.
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Lebanon and Israel announce the end of hostilities. Syrian forces remain in Lebanon.
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Assad suffers a heart attack, according to reports denied by authorities. Assad's brother Rifaat apparently prepares to take power.
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Rifaat is promoted to the post of vice-president.
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Assad sends troops into Lebanon for a second time to enforce a ceasefire in Beirut.
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Iraq invades Kuwait; Syria joins the US-led coalition against Iraq. This leads to improved relations with Egypt and the US.
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Syria participates in the Middle East peace conference in Madrid and holds talks with Israel that founder over the Golan Heights issue.
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Assad's son Basil, who was likely to succeed his father, is killed in a car accident.
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Assad's brother Rifaat is "relieved of his post" as vice-president.
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December - Talks with Israel over the Golan Heights begin in the US, but are indefinitely postponed the following month.
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Assad dies and is succeeded by his second son, Bashar.
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the new President Assad orders the release of 600 political prisoners.
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Outlawed Muslim Brotherhood says it will resume political activity, 20 years after its leaders were forced to flee.
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Syrian troops evacuate Beirut, redeploy in other parts of Lebanon, following pressure from Lebanese critics of Syria's presence.
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Pope John Paul II pays historic visit.
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September - Detention of MPs and other pro-reform activists, crushing hopes of a break with the authoritarian past of Hafez al-Assad. Arrest continue, punctuated by occaisional amnesties, over the following decade.
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British PM Tony Blair visits to try shore up support for the campaign against terror. He and President Assad fail to agree on a definition of terrorism.
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Senior US official includes Syria in a list of states that make-up an "axis of evil", first listed by President Bush in January. Undersecretary for State John Bolton says Damascus is acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
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US threatens sanctions if Damascus fails to take what Washington calls the "right decisions". Syria denies US allegations that it is developing chemical weapons and helping fugitive Iraqis.
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President Assad appoints Mohammed Naji al-Otari prime minister.
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Israeli air strike against Palestinian militant camp near Damascus. Syria says action is "military aggression".
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President Assad visits Turkey, the first Syrian leader to do so. The trip marks the end of decades of frosty relations, although ties sour again after the popular uprising in 2011.
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At least 25 killed in clashes between members of the Kurdish minority, police and Arabs in the north-east.
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US imposes economic sanctions on Syria over what it calls its support for terrorism and failure to stop militants entering Iraq
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UN Security Council resolution calls for all foreign forces to leave Lebanon.
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February - Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus are set on fire during a demonstration against cartoons in a Danish newspaper portraying the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
September - Attack on the US embassy in Damascus. Four gunmen open fire and throw grenades but fail to detonate a car bomb. Three of them are killed, one is captured. -
February-April- Tensions with the US escalate after the killing of former Lebanese PM Hariri in Beirut. Washington cites Syrian influence in Lebanon. Damascus is urged to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, which it does by April.
October - Interior minister and Syria's former head of intelligence in Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, dies in what officials say is suicide. UN inquiry into assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri implicates senior Syrian officials. -
December - Exiled former vice-president Abdul Halim Khaddam alleges that Syrian leaders threatened former Lebanese PM Hariri before his assassination.
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Iraq and Syria restore diplomatic relations after nearly a quarter century.
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European Union relaunches dialogue with Syria.
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US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets President Assad in Damascus. She is the highest-placed US politician to visit Syria in recent years. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Foreign Minister Walid Muallem the following month in the first contact at this level for two years.
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Leading dissident Kamal Labwani and prominent political writer Michel Kilo are sentenced to a long jail terms, only weeks after human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni is jailed.
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Israel carries out an aerial strike against a site in northern Syria that it said was a nuclear facility under construction. In 2011 the UN's IAEA nuclear watchdog decides to report Syria to the UN Security Council over its alleged covert nuclear programme reactor programme at the site.
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The US accuses North Korea of having helped Syria to build a secret nuclear reactor at the site bombed by Israel in 2007.
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President Assad meets French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. The visit signals the end of the diplomatic isolation by the West that followed the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri in 2005. While in Paris, President Assad also meets the recently-elected Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman. The two men agree to work towards the establishing of full diplomatic relations between their countries.
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Damascus hosts four-way summit between Syria, France, Turkey and Qatar, in a bid to boost efforts towards Middle East peace. Explosion kills 17 on the outskirts of Damascus, the most deadly attack in Syria in several years. Government blames Islamist militants.
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Syria establishes diplomatic relations with Lebanon for first time since both countries established independence in 1940s.
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The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, says traces of undeclared man-made uranium have been found at second site in Syria - a reactor in Damascus. The IAEA was investigating US claims that the site destroyed in the 2007 Israeli raid was a nuclear reactor.
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Iraq and Syria recall their envoys in a deepening rift over charges of responsibility for a string of deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad. They restore ties later in 2010.
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US renews sanctions against Syria, saying that it supports terrorist groups, seeks weapons of mass destruction and has provided Lebanon's Hezbollah with Scud missiles in violation of UN resolutions.
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Protests in Damascus and the southern city of Deraa demand the release of political prisoners. Security forces shoot a number of people dead in Deraa, triggering days of violent unrest that steadily spread nationwide over the following months.
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The government announces some conciliatory measures in an attempt to damp down unrest. . President Assad releases dozens of political prisoners and dismisses the government, and in April lifts the 48-year-old state of emergency. However, he accuses protesters of being Israeli agents.
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Army tanks enter Deraa, Banyas, Homs and suburbs of Damascus in an effort to crush anti-regime protests. US and European Union tighten sanctions. President Assad announces amnesty for political prisoners.
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The government says that 120 members of the security forces have been killed by "armed gangs" in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour. Troops besiege the town and more than 10,000 people flee to Turkey. President Assad pledges to start a "national dialogue" on reform.
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The IAEA nuclear watchdog decides to report Syria to the UN Security Council over its alleged covert nuclear programme reactor programme. The structure housing the alleged reactor was destroyed in an Israeli air raid in 2007.
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Newly formed Syrian National Council says it has forged a common front of internal and exiled opposition activists. Russia and China veto UN resolution condemning Syria.
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Arab League votes to suspend Syria, accusing it of failing to implement an Arab peace plan, and imposes sanctions. Army defectors target a military base near Damascus in the Free Syrian Army's most high-profile attack since protests began. Government supporters attack foreign embassies.
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Syria agrees to an Arab League initiative allowing Arab observers into the country. Thousand of protesters gather in Homs to greet them, but the League suspends its mission in January because of worsening violence.
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Twin suicide bombs outside security buildings in Damascus kill 44, the first in a series of large blasts in the the capital that continue into the following summer. Opposition accuses government of staging these and subsequent attacks.
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Russia and China block a UN Security Council draft resolution on Syria, and the government steps up the bombardment of Homs and other cities, recapturing the Homs district of Baba Amr the following month. The UN says that more than 7,500 people have died since the security crackdown began.
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UN Security Council endorses non-binding peace plan drafted by UN envoy Kofi Annan. China and Russia agree to support the plan after an earlier, tougher draft is modified. The UN statement falls short of a formal resolution, and violence continues into the summer.
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UN Security Council strongly condemns the government's use of heavy weaponry and the militia killing of more than a hundred civilians in Houla, near Homs. France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Australia expel senior Syrian diplomats in protest.
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Turkey changes rules of engagement after Syria shoots down a Turkish plane that strayed into its territory, declaring that if Syrian troops approach Turkey's borders they will be seen as a military threat.
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Free Syria Army blows up three security chiefs in Damascus and seizes Aleppo in the north. A government offensive to recapture the city makes only limited headway.
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The government suffers further blows. A UN General Assembly resolution demands that President Assad resign, high-level defections gather pace - most notably Prime Minister Riad Hijab - and US President Obama warns that use of chemical weapons would tilt the US towards intervention.
UN appoints veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as new UN-Arab League envoy for Syria after resignation of Kofi Annan. -
Syria-Turkish tension rises when Syrian mortar fire on a Turkish border town kills five civilians. Turkey returns fire and intercepts a Syrian plane allegedly carrying arms from Russia. Both countries ban each other's planes from their air space.
Fire in Aleppo destroys much of the historic market as fighting and bomb attacks continue in various cities.
UN-brokered ceasefire during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha breaks down as government continues attacks. -
Several major opposition forces unite as National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces at meeting in Qatar, including the Syrian National Council. Arab League stops short of full recognition. Islamist militias in Aleppo, including the Al-Nusra and Al-Tawhid groups, refuse to join the Coalition, denouncing it as a "conspiracy"
Syrian Arab Red Crescent estimates 2.5 million people have been displaced within Syria, double the previous estimate. UN dubs latest figure "conser -
The US joins Britain, France, Turkey and Gulf states in formally recognising Syria's opposition National Coalition as "the legitimate representative" of the Syrian people. President Obama says the Coalition is now inclusive, reflective and representative enough for this "big step".
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Syria accuses Israeli jets of attacking a military research centre near Damascus, but denies reports that lorries carrying weapons bound for Lebanon were hit. Unverified reports say Israel had targeted an Iranian commander charged with moving weapons of mass destruction to Lebanon.
International donors pledge more than $1.5bn (£950m) to help civilians affected by the conflict in Syria. -
Syrian warplanes bomb the northern city of Raqqa after rebels seize control. US and Britain pledge non-military aid to rebels, and Britain and France propose lifting European Union arms embargo.Rebel National Coalition elects interim "prime minister", US-educated technocrat Ghassan Hitto. Coalition Chairman Moaz al-Khatib quits, reportedly in partial protest at the move.
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