According to Al Jazeera, in 2000 During the rule of current Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, Syria saw what some considered a period of greater "political openness" termed by some the "Damascus Spring".
He soon after decided that the new "political openness" had come to an end later in 2001 and chose to stay in France, now his home country of 32 years, to concentrate on his academic work [REF].