At the start of the Syrian uprising, Dib Zaitoun became one of nine members of the government’s “crisis cell” which was tasked with handling the protests and the violent crack down on protesters. After the 18 July 2012 bombing of the crisis management cell and the death of four key members of the crisis management team, Dib Zaitoun was elevated to head the General Security Directorate and his previous position as head of the Political Security Directorate was taken over by Rustum Ghazali.