“In 2010, we set up an interview with the Syrian leader’s wife, Asma al-Assad, a Western-educated former banker and a woman with a reputation as a force for reform in the Middle East. Like many at that time, we were hopeful that the Assad regime would be open to a more progressive society. Subsequent to our interview, as the terrible events of the past year and a half unfolded in Syria, it became clear that its priorities and values were completely at odds with those of Vogue,” Anna Wintour said.

“The escalating atrocities in Syria are unconscionable, and we deplore the actions of the Assad regime in the strongest possible terms,” she added.

The 3200-word profile, published last March, under the headline “A rose in the desert” depicted Mrs Assad “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies”. According to the New York Times the article was part of a public relations campaign in which the Syrian regime paid a US public relations firm $5000 a month to liaise with Vogue. The profile of Asma al-Assad was later removed from its website.

The Vogue story came out as the al-Assad regime was cracking down violently in an uprising calling for his ouster. The United Nations estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising began. Opposition groups put the number at more than 14,000 while Human Rights Watch citing the Syria Violations Documentation Center, a network of Syrian activists, as saying that at least 1,176 children have been killed since February 2011.

In April, wives of top U.N. diplomats released a video calling on the wife of the Syrian president to help stop the country’s violence. The video, released on video-sharing website YouTube, asks viewers to sign a petition urging Asma Assad to speak out against the bloodshed.