Hafez al-Assad

Hafez al-Assad was a Syrian politician who served as President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. He was also Prime Minister from 1970 to 1971, as well as Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Secretary General of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000.
Michel Aflaq

Michel Aflaq was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba'athism and its political movement; he is considered by several Ba'athists to be the principal founder of Ba'athist thought. He published various books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Battle for One Destiny (1958) and The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution (1975).
Salah Jadid

Salah Jadid was a Syrian general and ultra-left-wing political figure in the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Syria, and the country's de facto leader from 1966 until 1970, when he was ousted by Hafez al-Assad's Corrective Movement.
Shukri al-Quwatli

Shukri al-Quwatli was the first president of post-independence Syria. He began his career as a dissident working towards the independence and unity of the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories and was consequently imprisoned and tortured for his activism. When the Kingdom of Syria was established, Quwatli became a government official, though he was disillusioned with monarchism and co-founded the republican Independence Party. Quwatli was immediately sentenced to death by the French who took control over Syria in 1920. Afterward, he based himself in Cairo where he served as the chief ambassador of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress, cultivating particularly strong ties with Saudi Arabia. He used these connections to help finance the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–1927). In 1930, the French authorities pardoned Quwatli and thereafter, he returned to Syria, where he gradually became a principal leader of the National Bloc. He was elected president of Syria in 1943 and oversaw the country's independence three years later.
Sami Moubayed

Sami Moubayed is a Damascus historian and writer, best known for his works on the modern history of Damascus from the late Ottoman period until creation of the Syrian-Egyptian union republic in 1958. In April 2017, he co-founded The Damascus History Foundation, an NGO aimed at preserving the archives of the Old City, threatened with extinction because of age, poor preservation, or neglect, becoming its founding chairman.
List of Prime Ministers of Syria

This article lists the Prime Ministers of Syria since 1920.
Sami al-Hinnawi

Sami Hilmy al-Hinnawi was a Syrian politician and military officer.
Sabah Qabbani

Sabah Qabbani was appointed ambassador of Syria to the United States by President Hafez Al-Asad in 1974. The post had been vacant since 1967 when diplomatic relations between Syria and the United States were severed following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Prior to his posting in Washington, D.C. he was Syria’s envoy to Indonesia and Syria's consul in New York.
Badawi al-Jabal

Muhammad Sulayman al-Ahmad, better known by his pen name Badawi al-Jabal, was a Syrian poet known for his work in the neo-classical Arabic form. According to anthologist Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Badawi was "one of the greatest poets of the old school".
Mansur al-Atrash

Mansur al-Atrash was a Syrian politician and journalist. Together with fellow university students, Atrash became a founding member of the Ba'ath Party and its Syrian regional branch in 1947. During the presidency of Adib Shishakli (1951–54), he became an anti-government activist and was imprisoned twice, only to be released in an unsuccessful attempt by Shishakli to gain the support of Atrash's father, Sultan. In the year Shishakli was overthrown, Atrash was elected to parliament and turned down an offer to serve in Said al-Ghazzi's government. During the period of the United Arab Republic (1958–61), Atrash became a strong supporter of Egyptian president and pan-Arab leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. He opposed Syria's secession from the UAR and turned down offers to serve in successive separatist governments in protest.
Muhammad Umran

Major General Muhammad Umran was a founding member of the Military Committee of the unitary Ba'ath Party, and a leading personality in Syrian politics from the 8th of March Revolution until the 1966 Syrian coup d'état.
Abd al-Karim al-Jundi

Abd al-Karim al-Jundi was a Syrian officer and a founding member of the Ba'ath Party's Military Committee which took over power in the country after the 1963 military coup. He also served as minister of agrarian reform, and commander of the national security bureau.
Wahib al-Ghanim

Wahib al-Ghanim (1919-2003) was a Syrian physician who co-founded the Ba'ath Party. According to Patrick Seale, he, along with Zaki al-Arsuzi, "wanted a stronger dose of socialism than the Damascus leaders" of the Ba'ath Party.
Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region

The Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, officially the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, is the ruling organ of the Ba'ath Party organization in Syria. The term Regional Command stems from Ba'athist ideology, where region literally means an Arab state. According to the Syrian Constitution, the Regional Command has the power to nominate a candidate for president. While the constitution does not state that the Regional Secretary of the Regional Command is the President of Syria, the charter of the National Progressive Front (NPF), of which the Ba'ath Party is a member, states that the President and the Regional Secretary is the NPF President, but this is not stated in any legal document. The 1st Extraordinary Regional Congress held in 1964 decided that the Regional Secretary of the Regional Command would also be head of state. Amin al-Hafiz, the sitting Regional Secretary, became head of state and retained his post as Prime Minister.
Ziad al-Hariri

Mohammed Ziad al-Hariri is a former prominent Syrian Army officer. A staunch Arab nationalist, he supported the union between Syria and Egypt in 1958, opposed Syria's secession from it in 1961 and served as the chief leader of the coup d'état that toppled the secessionist government in March 1963. Politically independent from the Nasserists and their Ba'athist rivals, Hariri served as the army's chief of staff following the coup and was briefly defense minister until being dismissed during a wide-scale purge of non-Ba'athists from the military. He retired from political activity soon afterward.
Salim Hatum

Salim Hatum was an officer in the Syrian Army who played a significant role in Syrian politics in the 1960s. A member of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, he was instrumental in the 1966 Syrian coup d'état that toppled the government of Amin al-Hafiz, also a Ba'athist. That same year he launched an insurrection from his home region of Jabal al-Druze against his colleagues who formed the new government but sidelined him from any major position. He fled Syria amid a warrant for his arrest, but returned in 1967 and was subsequently jailed and executed.