Much to the disappointment of Harrods, Christian Louboutin and sundry Kings Road interior decorators, Asma Assad hasn’t been shopping recently. Asma, Vogue’s “rose in the desert”, wife of Bashar al-Assad, has, like most of the dictator’s clan, been concentrating more on how to avoid a US Tomahawk cruise missile crashing into her living room. u00a0“She’s just hunkered down in Damascus,” says Andrew Tabler, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who used to work for the Syrian leader’s wife. “She’s standing by her man.”

A 1985 picture shows Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and his wife Anissah Makhlouf (seated) and, behind them, (R to L) their five children: Bushra, Majd, Bassel, Bashar, and the youngest, Maher. AFP Photo