Mohammed Dib Zaitoun ( ar, محمد ديب زيتون; born 20 February 1951) is a former head of the Syrian General Security Directorate and a close adviser of Syrian President

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

. He is one of many officials sanctioned by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

for their actions against protesters participating in the Syrian civil war.

Background

Maj Gen Dib Zaitoun was born in Damascus to a Sunni family. His father was a Sergeant in the

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

. He was commissioned as a

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

in a Mechanized Infantry regiment in the

Syrian Arab Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

in November 1971 after graduating from the 3-year long officer course at the Homs Military Academy. Before taking up his current position as head of the General Security Directorate, he was the head of the

Political Security Directorate Political Security Directorate (PSD, ar, إدارة الأمن السياسي, ''Idarat al-Amn al-Siyasi'') is an intelligence service of the Syrian government. It is divided into an Internal Security Department and an External Security Departme ...

(PSD). He took over the PSD position in 2009 after the previous head Muhammad Mansoura was removed because of his involvement in organized smuggling activity on the Syrian

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

i border. Before being head of the PSD, Dib Zaitoun had been the deputy head of the General Security Directorate during which time he was asked, along with other members of the president's inner circle, to investigate the assassination in 2008 of

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramil ...

’s Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus.

Syrian uprising

At the start of the Syrian uprising, Dib Zaitoun became one of nine members of the government’s Central Crisis Management Cell which was tasked with handling the protests and the violent crack down on protesters. After the 18 July 2012 bombing of the crisis management cell and the death of four key members of the crisis management team, Dib Zaitoun was elevated to head the General Security Directorate and his previous position as head of the Political Security Directorate was taken over by Rustum Ghazali.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dib Zaitoun, Mohammed 1951 births Living people People of the Syrian civil war Syrian generals Directors of intelligence agencies Syrian Sunni Muslims Syrian individuals subject to the European Union sanctions