[2] President Bashar al-Assad is a member of the Alawites sect of Shia Muslims who are in the minority yet form the elite of the military officers.
[5] Sattar has been on the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List since 2012.
[8] The European Union also has "restrictive measures against Syria" and added Dr. Mohammad Abdul Sattar Al Sayed to the list of persons 16 October 2012 as he "shares responsibility for the regime’s violent repression against the civilian population.
In March 2013 at the Preachers and Imans in the Middle and Coastal Regions Forum held in Tartous the Minister spoke of Christians and Muslims working together to spread tolerance and friendship.
[11] In June 2014 Sattar with a delegation of Muslim scholars visited the newly installed Patriarch of Antioch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church.