Algeria The party branch in Algeria, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Algeria ( ''Hizb Al-Ba'ath Al-'Arabi Al-Ishtiraki fi Al-Jaza'ir
; French: Parti Baath arabe socialiste d'Algérie''), is led by Ahmed Choutri (secretary of the Regional Command).
Bahrain The Nationalist Democratic Assembly (, ) represents the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath Party in
Bahrain. The group is led by Hassan Ali as Secretary General and Mahmoud Kassab as Deputy Secretary General. It was established by Bahrainis who had studied in
Ba'athist Iraq during the 1960s and 1970s. The party boycotted the
2002 parliamentary election, but not the
2006 election. The
2011 parliamentary by-election was boycotted by the party in solidarity with the
Bahraini uprising. It is headquartered in
Zinj. The party opposes the government's
naturalisation policies and contends that it is unfair for ethnic Bahrainis to compete equally with foreign workers for jobs. It opposed the
2003 invasion of Iraq, considering it an act of brutality against the Iraqi people. The party actively supports the overthrow of the
existing monarchy, with a peaceful transition to democracy.
Egypt The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Egypt Region ( ''Hizb Al-Ba'ath Al-Arabi Al-Ishtiraki – Misr'') is an active branch in Egypt. The party supported the removing of
Bashar al-Assad of Syria, although calls for no foreign intervention in the
conflict, whether by Israel, Turkey or Iran, as the party believes all such countries have ulterior motives and seek to undermine Syria. The party was outlawed in the early 1990s and two Iraqi Intelligence Officials were detained on 14 April 1991 with $38,000 in their possession, money which the Egyptian authorities claimed was to be used to fund sabotage operations in Egypt. Several other Egyptian Ba'athists, including the poet
Muhammad Afifi Matar, were also detained in April 1991 on suspicion of involvement in an Iraqi terrorist plot.
Eritrea Ba'athist organizations emerged in the leadership of the
Eritrean Liberation Front in the 1970s, with pro-Baghdad and pro-Damascus groups competing for political dominance over the front. This split contributed to the downfall of the ELF and the emergence of the
Eritrean People's Liberation Front as the dominant liberation movement. A key pro-Iraqi Ba'athist was Abdel Gadir Jeilani, who became the leader of the ELF-PLF-Revolutionary Council in the 1980s.
Iraq In Iraq, the Ba'ath party remained a civilian group and lacked strong support from the military. The party had little impact and the movement split into several factions after 1958 and again in 1966. The movement was reported to have lacked strong popular support, but through the construction of a strong party apparatus the party succeeded in gaining power. The Iraqi-based party was originally committed to pan-Arabism (like its Syrian counterpart). After taking power in 1968, the party adopted
Iraqi nationalism and encouraged
Iraqis to identify themselves as cultural heirs of Mesopotamia with a Islamic identity. Saddam Hussein sought to be seen as leader of a great neo-Mesopotamian Iraqi nation by having himself compared to
Nebuchadnezzar II and
Hammurabi. The Ba'ath Party was led by Saddam's former deputy
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri until his death in 2020.
Jordan At the time of the 1966 split, the Jordanian branch had an estimated 1,000 members. It was active in the
Arab Liberation Front (ALF) and the ALF's first leader was the Jordanian, Zaid Haydar. However, Ba'athist ideology remains popular; The party was legally registered in 1993, but forced to change its name from the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to the Jordanian Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ''Hizb Al-Ba'ath Al-'Arabi Al-Ishtiraki Al-Urduniy''). Khalil Haddadeen, Jordan's former minister of information, was elected to Parliament during the
1993 and
1997 elections on a
pro-Iraqi, Saddamist platform. Currently, the Ba'ath branch has no members of parliament. In 2003 it was estimated that the party had fewer than 200 members. According to a
Cablegate document dating back to 2007, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party figure Ahmed Al Dmour was considered one of the biggest threats to
Islamic Action Front dominance on the political scene. In 2023, the Jordanian Ba'ath Party's licence to participate in the local elections was renewed, causing criticism from Iraqi figures.
Kuwait As of 1983 the branch was led by Faisal al-Sani. The Kuwaiti Ba'ath Party branch collapsed during
Gulf War because of the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, the leader of the
Iraqi National Dialogue Front, has been accused of trying to rebuild the party. However, the existence of the pro-Iraqi Lebanese branch of the Ba'ath party has much longer roots. Following the 1966 split in the Ba'ath movement with party members split between Syrian and Iraqi allegiances, the Iraqi wing was led by Abd al-Majid Rafei. Other prominent members at the time of the split were Jihad George Karam, Rafiq Nasib Alfaqiya, Karam Mohamed Assahli, Hani Mohamed Shoiab, Ammar Mohamed Shabli, Hassan Khalil Gharib and Asaf Habin Alharakat. At first, the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath branch and the
pro-Syrian Ba'ath branch worked side by side in the National Front, but with tension increasing between the Syrian and Iraqi Ba'athist factions the two parties were on a war footing. The party was active in 1960s demonstrations and al-Rafei was detained by Lebanese authorities for his political activities, but he was a candidate from
Tripoli in the 1968 general election. The party expanded during the first half of the 1970s and in the
1972 general election al-Rafi was elected to parliament from Tripoli. Ali al-Khalil, a former member, was elected from Tyre. The party was active in
Southern Lebanon and was built with generous aid from Iraq. During the
Lebanese Civil War, the Lebanese parliament formed the National Dialogue Committee in 1975.
Assem Qanso of the
pro-Syrian Ba'ath Party became a member, but no figures from the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath Party were given a seat on the committee. Tahsein al-Atrash, leader of the Ba'ath branch at the time, was shot dead in November 1981. The party was a member of the
Lebanese National Movement, a political organisation led by
Walid Jumblatt of the
Progressive Socialist Party. Throughout its existence, it has controlled the Palestinian
Arab Liberation Front.
Libya Following the
coup d'état of 1969 against King
Idris, a new revolutionary government was established, led by
Muammar Gaddafi. The government was recognised as
Nasserist because the new administration proclaimed its goal as "liberty, socialism and unity", rather than "unity, liberty, socialism" (the Ba'ath Party's slogan). This change in order was important because of the ideological split between the Ba'athists and the Nasserists. Following Gaddafi's revolution, several People's Committees were established. These committees (which at the beginning were led by the people) arrested several ba'athists. Amr Taher Deghayes, founder of the Libyan Ba'ath branch, was later arrested by Gaddafi's security forces and died after three days in jail. Deghayes' death allegedly sparked a large anti-government demonstration (which was crushed), followed by the imprisonment of several leading Ba'athists. In 1982, a trial began in which 25 Libyan Ba'athists were charged with membership in an illegal organisation and they were freed after torture. The following year, they were re-tried on the same charge: three were sentenced to death and others to life in prison. The arrests and trials of the 1980s led to the dissolution of the Libyan regional Ba'athist organisation. The
Libyan National Movement (LNM), an
Arab-nationalist organisation, was founded by
Ba'athist lawyer 'Umran Burweiss. The LNM (still in existence) was originally financed by Iraqi Ba'athists and produced relatively high-quality propaganda materials. For example, it issued audio cassettes which were smuggled into Libya with
Sawt at-Talia during the 1980s. The organisation also produced broadcasts for Radio Baghdad.
Mauritania The first pro-Iraqi activities was in 1968, but it was organizationally established in 1972. The Mauritanian Ba'athist divide their history into two phases: founding (1976–1982) and deployment (1982–1990). With
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Ba'ath party lost its popular appeal and the financial aid from the Iraqi embassy dried up. The Mauritanian Ba'ath Party remains the largest
Arab nationalist political force in the country. The branch has maintained good relations with the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party, even after Saddam Hussein's downfall following the
2003 invasion of Iraq. The branch supports full Arabization of the country, a view considered racist by critics.
Ould Haidalla introduced an anti-ba'athist policy which continued under his successor, President
Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya. However, the Mauritanian Government supported
Iraq during the
Gulf War, and Iraq–Mauritania relations became so close that (inaccurate) rumors circulated internationally that Saddam's family had taken refuge in the country following the American invasion. Repression against the ba'athists has not been reduced. In 2003, several ba'athists were jailed on suspicion of trying to overthrow the government. A reason for the close relationship between Iraq and Mauritania was the strength of the Mauritanian ba'athist party. The party was banned in 1999 following the official instauration of bilateral relations with
Israel. The National Vanguard Party was accused of developing plans in collaboration with the Iraqi government to foment unrest in the country. Mohamed Ould Abdellahi Ould Eyye, the party's leader, was arrested in 2003 after a large anti-government protest demanding that the government break off relations with Israel and the United States and help Saddam Hussein. He and 13 other ba'athists were arrested by government forces and the party's headquarters were raided in May. Another pro-Iraqi Ba'ath party did take its place, the Party for Work and National Unity (, abbreviated PTUN). However, while PTUN is close to the Iraqi Ba'ath party branch, the group is small and largely inactive.
Palestine A disorganised pro-Iraqi Ba'ath guerilla movement existed before the establishment of the
Arab Liberation Front (ALF). The ALF was established in 1969 at a National Congress of the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath Party to weaken the hold
al-Sa'iqa, the pro-Syrian Ba'ath organisation in Palestine had over the ba'athist movement. In contrast to al-Sa'iqa, the ALF never had access to a large recruitment pool. There were few Palestinians in Iraq, and the Palestinians living in Iraq were generally well-educated. Because of this, ALF could not and would never have the same degree of influence over the Palestinian movement as al-Sa'iqa did. This caused the ALF to be controlled by the pro-Iraq Ba'ath movement, thus weakening its effectiveness and influence, but saving it from infighting between
Palestinianists and Ba'athists (a problem in al-Sa'iqa). However, the ALF's influence weakened periodically during its history due to infighting in the pro-Iraq Ba'ath movement. Because of the control the pro-Iraq Ba'ath movement had over the ALF, the ALF always held a pro-Iraqi position in the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The ALF was a founding member of the
Rejectionist Front in 1974, rejecting the
PLO's Ten Point Program. Abdel-Wahhab Kayyali (a member of the
PLO Executive Committee) froze his seat on the committee in protest, instead of following the example (resignation) of the Rejectionist Front. The
invasion of Iraq toppled the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath Party, headquartered in Baghdad. This weakened the movement and since the
Iraqi military coordinated much of the ALF's activities the ALF has also been considerably weakened. The ALF's first leader was Zaid Haydar from the Jordanian Ba'ath branch. Other leaders include
Munif al-Razzaz, Abd al-Rahim Ahmad and Mahmud Isma'il. Most recently, it was led by
Rakad Salem and headquartered in
Ramallah,
West Bank.
Israeli Defence Forces arrested Salem in October 2002. Shahir Abu Shahut, former leader of the Jordanian Ba'ath branch, led the Ba'ath branch in Palestine from 1970 to 1975 from Baghdad. and Taiseer Mutassir was the Regional Secretary in 1990. After collaborating with the Arab nationalist Sudanese government for years, the Ba'ath Party broke off relations and became an opposition party in 1990this would have disturbed Iraq if Sudan had not supported it during the
1991 Gulf crisis. In 1990, the party was composed largely of students who had studied in
Ba'athist Iraq. Later in 1990, 26 Ba'athi military officers were executed in
Khartoum after a failed military coup. The following year, after the invasion of Iraq 80 Sudanese Ba'athists return to Sudan under the condition that they would stay out of politics.
Tunisia The first Ba'athist branch in Tunisia, then under the
unified Ba'ath Party, was established in 1955, but the Ba'ath Party was outlawed under
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Following the
Tunisian Revolution, Omar once told a journalist, "the Syrian regime has turned against the Ba'ath and is no longer Ba'athist one". The party does not support Syria's expulsion from the
Arab League and asserts that foreign nations should play a neutral role in the
Syrian Civil War. On 4 February 2012, the executive committee of the Ba'ath Movement released a communiqué condemning the provisional Tunisian government's expulsion of the Syrian ambassador. The Ba'ath Movement expressed solidarity with the Syrian protesters and condemned the shooting of unarmed demonstrators. The committee predicted that the Syrian ambassador's expulsion would militarise the conflict, mobilising Arab opinion against the government and leading to military intervention. After the revolution, the Arab Democratic Vanguard Party emerged as second "Iraqi" Baathist Party in Tunisia. Its membership is younger and its political position more at the left of the historically Baath Movement and is headed by Kheireddine Souabni and Ahmed Seddik. The Ba'ath Movement is a member of the
Popular Front, a communist-dominated front with strong popular backing.
Yemen The National Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Yemen Region ( ''Hizb Al-Ba'ath Al-Arabi Al-Ishtiraki Al-Qawmi – Qutr Al-Yaman
) is led by Qassem Salam Said as Secretary of the Regional Command It publishes the newspaper Al-Ehyaa Al-'Arabi
(, English: Arabic Renaissance''). The party carried out clandestine political activity until 1990 and was registered as the National Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party on 10 February 1997. It had initially sought to register as the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 1995, but that name was given by the authorities to the
pro-Syria Ba'athist party. Politically, the party is allied with the ruling
General People's Congress and during the 2011
Arab Spring this position caused an internal split. In March 2011, it was reported that the
Hodeidah branch of the party had sided with the uprising after violent attacks on protesters in the city. The party contested the
1993 parliamentary election in alliance with the pro-Syrian Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, winning seven seats. After the election, relations between the two Ba'athist groups soured and they contested further elections separately. The party contested the
1997 parliamentary election (failing to win any seats) and called for a boycott of the
1999 presidential election. Said, the branch leader, was sued by the Ministry of Information in February 2000 over an article criticising
Saudi Arabia. In the
2003 parliamentary elections, the party obtained 23,745 votes (0.4 percent of the national vote) and again failed to re-enter parliament. == Notes ==