Chief of Staff Major General and doctor Bahjat Suleiman, Abu al-Majd, was a former Commander of a Syrian Arab Army tank company. In addition to being a former Commander of a tank battalion, regiment, and brigade. He participated in the October War against Israel in 1973 as a tank company Commander in the northern zone. He was the first to come up with the slogan, "Bassel is the example, and Bashar is the hope". Hafez al-Assad entrusted Bashar ’s education to him. Therefore, Bashar would regularly visit him in his house, which was located in Mezzeh Villas. Suleiman has many studies and writings about the former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, his dead son Bassel al-Assad, who died in a car accident, and the Arab political situation. He was close to Rafaat and worked with him in the Defence Companies, but he kept away from him later and pledged loyalty to Hafez. Suleiman was dismissed from the General Intelligence in 2005 as he had to pay for his dispute with Assef Shawkat and Maher al-Assad, who joined forces against him, despite their conflicts with the Nassif family (including Muhammad Nassif, Suleiman ’s successor in the Internal Branch, and Fu ’ad Nassif, Muhammad Nassif ’s successor in managing the branch). Hence, Bahjat was held accountable for recruiting many Arab and Syrian youths to fight in Iraq in collaboration with a number of religious scholars, most notably the Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, and Mahmoud Gul Agasi, Abu al-Qaqa, who was, in unclear circumstances, assassinated in 2007. It was said that the reason was his involvement in threatening al-Hariri before al-Hariri ’s assassination. Bahjat Suleiman obtained a PhD in Political Economy in 1982 from Romania (this might explain how he got to know Walid Othman, Syria ’s ambassador in Romania). Sources confirmed that Bahjat Suleiman and his son Majd smuggled some 300 million dollars, especially since Majd was located in Dubai, particularly for such a role. In addition to Majd and Haydara, he has two daughters; one is married to Aktham Douba. Some sources mentioned that Bahjat, along with the two scholars Hassoun and al-Bouti, had contributed to reinforcing the Sufi trend in its apolitical and absolute-support-to-Assad version.