Stratfor WikiLeaks: Assad's Mother 'Disappointed' by Syrian President's Failure

The mother of Syria's embattled president Bashar al-Assad is "concerned" her son will meet the same fate as Libya's Gaddafi, according to latest Strafor emails revealed by WikiLeaks.

A Reuters correspondent, who was reportedly "kicked out from Syria", told an analyst of the US-based firm that Assad's matriarch, Anissa Makhlouf, was "disappointed in Bashar and Maher for the mess that they have created".

"She has been saying things like: had your father been alive things would have never come to such a point," the analyst reports in an email dated December 10, 2011.

Anissa Makhlouf is considered to have been a pivotal influence over in Bashar's political development, having been in charge of his education since he was a child. A teacher by training, Anissa married Hafez al-Assad in 1958, who was considered her social inferior within Syrian society.

The analyst also quotes the Reuters journalist as saying that Anissa "is very concerned that her boys will met the same fate as al-Qaddhafi [Gaddafi] and his sons". She also reportedly pressed them to look into "an exit strategy" before it is too late.

In the email exchange that followed, Stratfor analysts discussed the meaning of the "exit strategy"

"Source spoke of some compromise where Bashar leaves office," writes Kamran Bokhari. "But she is apparently worried that the situation has come to a point where she fears that her sons could meet a fate similar to Q[Gaddafi] and family."

Makhlouf family belongs to Assad's Alawite-Shiite minority sect, which rose to dominate political system in a country like Syria with a Sunni majority. Mohammed, a brother of Assad's mother Anissa, amassed a fortune under the rule of Assad's father Hafez al-Assad.