Arab Spring/Catalogs

Bashir al-Assad
President of Syria since 2000, following his father's 30-year presidency. (website)(BBC profile){Interview August 2011). Authoritarian ruler. Accused of repression and "massive violation of human rights.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj
De facto commander of Libyan rebel army. (BBC profile) Former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Denies Al-Qaeda connections .

Abdelilah Benkirane
Prime Minister of Morocco since November 2011 ([BBC profile]). Leader of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika
President of Algeria since 1999. Autocratic head of a regime that has been accused by the UN Human Rights Committee of "massacres, torture, rape and disappearances".(CBS profile). Opponent of Islamic extremism.

Muammar Gaddafi
President of Libya from 1969 until his capture and death in October 2011.

Rachid Ghannouchi
Islamic scholar, teacher, and activist, leader of the Tunisian Ennahda Party (Reuters profile). An admirer of the political situation in Turkey. Said to be widely considered as a moderate who believes that Islam and democracy are compatible (text of statement). Has no formal position in the current Tunisian government.

Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi
President of Yemen since February 2012 (China daily profile). Vice President for the previous 17 years.

Riad Hijab
Former Prime Minister of Syria (Al Jazeera profile), who defected to the revolution in August 2012.

Mohamed Morsi
President of Egypt since 24th June 2012. Former Chairman of the Moslem Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party.

Mustapha Ben Jaafar
President of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly since November 22 2011. Founder and Secretary-General of Tunisia's Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties (Ettakatol). Formerly a doctor and radiologist. (Tunisia Live profile).

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil
Chairman, Libyan National Transitional Council. Former Minister of Justice BBC profile. Advocates a democratic state based on Islamic law .

Hamadi Jebali
Prime Minister of Tunisia since November 2011. Former Secretary General of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda(Tunisia Live profile).

Mahmoud Jibril
Former Prime Minister of the Libyan National Transitional Council and international spokesman. Previously head of Libyan National Economic Development Board. Previously a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh Daily Telegraph profile. Resigned on 24th October 2011.

Saad al-Katatni
Speaker of the Egyptian parliament and Secretary-General of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. Carnegie profile

Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa
King of Bahrain since 1999 (profile)

Abdurrahim el-Keeb
Interim Prime Minister of Libya from 31 October 2011. An academic specialising in electrical engineering(BBC News)

Moncef Marzouki
Tunisian human rights activist, politician and physician. Leader of the Congress for the Republic political party.

Mohammed VI
King of Morrocco since 1999. There have been some economic and social liberalisation measures during his reign, but he has retained sweeping powers (BBC country profile).

Hosni Mubarak
Deposed president of Egypt. On trial for corruption and for ordering the killing of protestors<ref.Mubarak trial: Egypt's ex-president denies all charges, BBC News, 3 August 2011.

Hisham Qandil
Prime Minister of Egypt since 2 August 2012. Former water resources minister(Ahram.online profile).

Ali Abdullah Saleh
President of the Republic of Yemen (website)(BBC profile). He has been urged to resign, by the United Nations Security Council as per the Gulf Cooperation initiative, but he has rejected both the UNSC resolution and the Gulf Cooperation initiative.

Essam Sharaf
Interim Prime Minister of Egypt. US-educated civil engineer and former Minister of Transport (BBC profile)

Mohamed Hussein Tantawi
Egypt's Minister of Defence since 2 August 2012. Leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Formerly interim head of state since February 2011. Previously Minister of Defence from 1991 and  general commander for the armed forces from  1995.(BBC profile)(Carnegie Endowment profile).

Ahmed Shafiq
Former Prime Minister of Egypt (Jan-March 2011), the army's unsuccessful candidate in the 2012 presidential election.

Ahmed el Tayeb
Principal of Al Azhar University Initiator of the Al-Azhar Document.