The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (; meaning "resurrection"), also referred to as the pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement, is a neo-Ba'athist political party with branches across the Arab world. From 1970 until 2000, the party was led by the Syrian president and Secretary General Hafez al-Assad. Until 26 October 2018, leadership was shared between his son Bashar al-Assad (head of the Syrian regional organization) and Abdullah al-Ahmar (head of the pan-Arab national organization).

In 2018, after the reunification of the National and Regional Command, Bashar al-Assad became the Secretary General of the Central Command. The Syrian Regional Branch of the party was the largest organisation within the Syrian-led Ba'ath Party; it ruled Syria from the 1963 coup to the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. The Syrian Regional Branch's activities were indefinitely suspended on 11 December 2024 and its assets transferred to the caretaker government, dissolving the branch. On 29 January 2025, Military Operations Command spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani announced the dissolution of the Syrian Regional Branch at the Syrian Revolution Victory Conference.

Other branches of the Syrian-dominated Ba'ath faction continued to operate, with the Palestinian branch As-Sa'iqa even resuming its activities inside Syria.

Leadership

General Secretary Hafez al-Assad became the Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command of the party in 1970 and Secretary General of the National Command in late 1970. Although he died in the year 2000, Hafez al-Assad continued to be named as the official Secretary General of the National Command. Bashar al-Assad became the Regional Secretary of the party in Syria after his father's death in 2000. In 2017, Bashar al-Assad was elected the Secretary General of the National Council.

Portrait Name Tenure Took office Left office Duration 1 Nureddin al-Atassi March 1966 18 November 1970 2 Hafez al-Assad 12 September 1971 10 June 2000 — Abdullah al-Ahmar 10 June 2000 14 May 2017 3 Bashar al-Assad 18 May 2017 8 December 2024

Timeline

Assistant General Secretary Abdullah al-Ahmar served as the Assistant Secretary General of the National Command, a post he has held since 1971 until 2018. Between 26 October 2018 and 8 May 2024, Hilal Hilal was an Assistant Secretary General of the Central Command. On 8 May 2024, Dr. Ibrahim al-Hadid was elected as the new Assistant Secretary of the Central Command.

Portrait Name Tenure Took office Left office Duration 1 Hafez al-Assad 18 November 1970 17 November 1971 2 Abdullah al-Ahmar 17 November 1971 26 October 2018 3 Hilal Hilal 26 October 2018 8 May 2024 4 Ibrahim al-Hadid 8 May 2024 11 December 2024

Timeline

Central Command In 2018, Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, was established through the merger of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.

National Council At the 14th Conference of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 2017, the National Command, the party's leading organ since its inception, was abolished and replaced by the National Council. It was decided that the National Council would be composted of the regional secretaries of the regional branches of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.

National Congresses Note: for the 1st–8th National Congresses, see the national congresses held by the unified, pre-1966 Ba'ath Party. 9th National Congress (25–29 September 1966) 9th Extraordinary National Congress (September 1967) 10th National Party Congress (October 1968) 10th Extraordinary National Congress (October–November 1970) 11th National Congress (August 1971) 12th National Congress (July 1975) 13th National Congress (27 July – 2 August 1980) 14th National Congress (15–21 May 2017)

Organization The 1963 National Congress of the Party in Damascus advocated a far-left posture; proclaiming the party as the vehicle for socialist revolution and building a socialist society. Key Marxist programmes such as worker's control of economic production and collectivizing of agricultural lands were adopted. The party is organized along Leninist lines, a policy stemming back to Aflaq and Bitar's leadership before the split. The highest organ of the party is the Party Congress. The Congress elects a General Secretary and a National Command. Under the National Command there is a Regional Command for each state in which the party operates. The regions are divided into branches, which are divided into companies. A branch consists of two or more companies. A company comprises three to seven cells. Each cell has between three and seven members.

In theory, the National Command of the party is the embryonic government for the entire Arab nation. The body comprises 21 members, half of whom are Syrian. In practice, the Syrian Regional Command is the more powerful institution inside the party. The Syrian Regional Command is the real political leadership in Syria; the power of the National Command has become more symbolic than real. A seat in National Command has become a sinecure, an honorary post given to Syrian politicians as they retire from active political life. Hafez al-Assad rarely had time to attend National Command meetings. Instead, he appointed Vice President for Party Affairs Zuhayr Masharqa or Abd al-Halim Khaddam to represent him at National Command meetings. In theory, the National Command could conduct proselytism and form new Regional Commands across the Arab world and support weaker Regional Commands, but Syrian policymakers have curtailed that capacity.

Anthem

Arabic script Arabic transliteration English translationya šabāba-l'arbi hayyā wanṭaliq yā mawkibī warfa'i-ṣṣawta qawiyān 'aša Ba'athu-l'arabi ya šabāba-l'arbi hayyā wanṭaliq yā mawkibī warfa'i-ṣṣawta qawiyān 'aša Ba'athu-l'arabi

naḥnu fallaḥu wa'āmil washabābu-lla yalīn naḥnu jundi yun muqātil naḥnu sawtu-lkādaḥin min juðūri-l'Arḍi ji.nā min samimi-l-alami bī-ḍḍaḥāyā mā bakhilnā bi-l'aṭā il'akrami

ya šabāba-l'arbi hayyā wanṭaliq yā mawkibī warfa'i-ṣṣawta qawiyān 'aša Ba'athu-l'arabi

khandaqu-ththuwwāri wāḥid .aw yuqāla-ẓẓulmu zāl ṣāmidun ya Ba'athu ṣāmid .anta fī sāḥi-nniḍāl waḥidi-l.aḥrara hayyā waḥidi-shsha'aba-l'aẓīm wāmḍi yā Ba'athu qawiyyān lilġadi-lḥurri-lkarīm

ya šabāba-l'arbi hayyā wanṭaliq yā mawkibī warfa'i-ṣṣawta qawiyān 'aša Ba'athu-l'arabiArab youth, raise and march to fight your enemies, Raise your voice: "Long live the Arab Ba'ath!" Arab youth, raise and march to fight your enemies, Raise your voice: "Long live the Arab Ba'ath!"

We are farmers, workers and persistent youth, We are soldiers, we are the voice of labourers, We came from roots of this land and pain from hearts, We weren't misers in giving sacrifice nobly.

Arab youth, raise and march to fight your enemies, Raise your voice: "Long live the Arab Ba'ath!"

All revolutionaries into the trenches, there's still injustice, The Ba'ath will never surrender and stop struggling. Go Ba'ath. Unite all revolutionaries, unite all great people, Go strong for tomorrow in freedom and dignity.

Arab youth, raise and march to fight your enemies, Raise your voice: "Long live the Arab Ba'ath!"

Branches by region

Iraq

The party was sometimes known in Iraq as left-wing Ba'ath or Qutr Al-Iraq. Prominent members of the party in Iraq include Mahmud Rashad Al-Shaykh Radhi, Fawzi Mutlaq al-Rawi and Dr. Mahmud Shamsa.U.S. Labor Against War. Who's Who in the Iraqi Opposition The party opposed the rule of Saddam Hussein and was one of the first groups to be targeted by him. The party lost hundreds of its cadres amid repression by his government.Asharq al-Awsat. عبد المهدي: اللقاء بحزب البعث ـ تنظيم العراق لم ينقطع.. ولا مشكلة لنا مع القوميين Radhi was based in Syria during the 1970s.Al-Ittihad. في الذكرى الثالثة والثلاثين لميلاد الأتحاد عبدالرزاق فيلي

The party labelled the Saddam government as "fascist". When the Iran–Iraq War broke out in 1980, the party took part in the formation of the Iraqi Patriotic and Democratic Front, together with the Iraqi Communist Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Socialist Party. The front vowed to overthrow Saddam. (Syria supported Iran in the Iraq-Iran War.)

In the 1980s, the party began cooperating with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The party organized the first general conference of Iraqi opposition groups in Damascus in 1989. It also participated in a conference of Iraqi opposition groups in Beirut in 1991. In 1999, Radhi was staying in the United Kingdom.Iraqi Patriotic Alliance. قداسة الحبر الأعظم يوحنا بولص الثاني المحترم The party was one of three main groups (along with the Iraqi Communist Party and the Islamic Dawa Party) which formed the Coalition of Iraqi National Forces. The Coalition was opposed to Saddam Hussein as well as United States military intervention. During the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the party publicly denounced U.S. involvement in the organization of Iraqi dissidents in exile.Nahrain. مقاطعو مؤتمر لندن للمعارضة العراقية لماذا يقاطعون؟

After the fall of Saddam's administration, confusion arose as to whether the de-Ba'athification law also applied to the party. In 2008, Radhi requested that the party be allowed to function inside Iraq and join the process of reconciliation. In response, the Iraqi government declared that they viewed Qotr al-Iraq as distinct from Saddam's Ba'ath because Qotr al-Iraq had participated in the opposition conferences during the Saddam years. , the Iraqi regional organization is still based in Syria.

In 2018 Radhi, based in London, visited Baghdad and met President Fuad Masum during reconciliation talks.

Jordan

The Arab Ba'ath Progressive Party was legally registered for the first time in 1993. The branch is small, and has, according to a leaked diplomatic cable, a "minuscule number of adherents". Despite its small size, the branch is able through its leader, Fuad Dabbour, to get a decent footprint in Jordanian media. Dabbour's fiery statements on foreign policy are frequently quoted by the press. The party is less known than its pro-Iraqi counterpart, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. It is the party branch of the Syrian-dominated Ba'ath Party in Jordan. Fuad Dabbour is the branch's Regional Secretary. It is believed that the party has fewer than 200 members.

Regional Secretaries Mahmood Ma'ayteh Fuad Dabbour

Lebanon

The Lebanese branch was established in 1966, the year of the Ba'ath Party split. During the Lebanese Civil War, the party had an armed militia called the Assad Battalion. The party joined forces with Kamal Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party in organizing the National Democratic Movement, seeking to abolish the confessional state. The National Democratic Movement was superseded by the National Democratic Front, in which the party participated. The party organized resistance against Israeli forces in Lebanon. In July 1987, it took part in forming the Unification and Liberation Front.

In the 2009 parliamentary election, the party won two seats as part of the March 8 Alliance. The parliamentarians of the party are Assem Qanso and Qassem Hashem. Wael Nader al-Halqi, the Prime Minister of Syria, praised the Lebanon Regional Branch leadership, stating that they supported the Syrian leadership and stayed loyal to the Assads despite the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and in times of conspiracies and attacks. Since 2018, party is along the Amal Movement part of Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc. As of 2023, the leader of the party is Ali Hijazi. In the 2022 parliamentary election, the party won one seat.

On 12 December 2025, the head of the party, Ali Hijazi, announced that the party had changed its name to the "National Banner Party", and said that he would submit an official request to the Lebanese government to formally change the party's name.