His face stares out impassively from billboards and posters on almost every corner and building in Syria, mostly in dark shades and military fatigues. Yet in person the slim figure in navy suit, white shirt and blue tie, drinking tea with British guests in a small wood-panelled reception room in his Ottoman palace on Mount Qasioun, looked like a businessman.
Outside, as dusk fell on Aleppo where Halloween parties were getting under way in the lively Old City, the war seemed far away, even though two districts of the capital remain under rebel control.
Within days, however, President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies are expected to launch a terrifying final onslaught on the besieged eastern half of Aleppo, which has already seen death and