A Despicable PR Stunt': Syria's President Joins Instagram

Trying to show the world a softer side of himself and his regime, Syrian President Bashar Assad has joined the photo-sharing service Instagram, where he has already posted dozens of photos of himself and his wife Asma warmly greeting citizens, visiting wounded in the hospital, talking with children and feeding the elderly.

The U.S. State Department is calling it “a despicable PR stunt.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad waves to supporters in a photo posted on his new Instagram account.

“It’s repulsive that the Assad regime would use this to gloss over the brutality and suffering it’s causing; that to see what’s really happening right now in Syria, to see the horrific atrocities in Homs and elsewhere, we would encourage people to take a look at unfiltered photos of what’s actually happening on the ground,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

Conspicuously absent from Assad’s photo collection are the brutal images the world has gotten used to seeing over the course of the civil war which has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 Syrians and foreign fighters staking ground on either side, the jihadi rebels who’ve joined forces with the opposition forces and Hezbollah which has deployed troops to support the Assad-loyal Syrian military.

Assad and his wife, British-born Asma meet with children (Photo: Instagram)

The Daily Dot on Mashable reported that the Syrian president’s office launched the account via an announcement on Twitter which read, "Presidency of the Republic officially launches account on Instagram, lets you follow presidential activities. Follow us first hand."

In one picture, First Lady Asma al-Assad is seen wiping tears off of the cheek of a boy. "Visit camp Zaid bin Haritha House Shooting Club in Damascus - July 2012," reads the caption.

The Daily Dot reports that a user with the handle @rama_14 left this comment: "What a bulls*** picture. Why don't you stop killing kids and their parents? Then you won't have any tears to wipe away!"

Asma Assad wipes a tear off of the cheek of a boy (Photo: Instagram)

Asma Assad helps an elderly woman with her food (Photo: Instagram)

Another commenter suggested critical comments were being scrubbed. @bouxhors43 writes: "how to recognize a dictatorship: she created her Instagram account and delete all comments in opposition."

A quick perusal of the English comments on the site does appear to show a lack of anti-Assad comments.

Assad is seen in another photograph greeting Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X Yazigi. The Christian community in Syria has been particularly brutalized by Islamist rebels fighting Assad who want to establish a sharia-based regime. Though he is viewed by the U.S. and West as a brutal dictator, Assad is seen by Syrian Christians as a protector of the rights of minority religions.

President Assad greeting Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X Yazigi (Photo: Instagram)

Asked at the Wednesday briefing if the State Department was “following” Assad on Instagram, Harf said, “I do not know the answer to that question. I don’t believe so.” She did concede that she and other State Department officials had checked out the photos.

Harf would not comment when asked if the U.S. government objected to Instagram - owned by Facebook - allowing Assad to have an account.

Assad released a statement Thursday marking Syria's Army Day in which he lauded his troops and voiced confidence they will be victorious in the civil war which has been going on for more than two years.

“Had we in Syria not been confident of victory, we wouldn’t have been able to resist” for the past two years, Assad said according to the Associated Press.

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