Abdullah al-Ahmar

This article is about the Syrian politician. For the Yemeni politician and tribal leader, see Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar.

Abdullah Al-Ahmar (Arabic: عبدالله الأحمر; born 6 June 1936)^[1] is a Syrian politician and prominent member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.

Abdullah al-Ahmar عبدالله الأحمر
Ahmar during an official visit to Romania in 1978
Assistant Secretary General of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office 17 November 1971 – 26 October 2018
President	Hafez al-Assad Bashar al-Assad
Preceded by	Hafez al-Assad
Succeeded by	Hilal Hilal
Member of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch
In office 13 November 1970 – 9 February 2005
Personal details
Born	(1936-06-06) 6 June 1936 (age 89) Al-Tall, French Mandate
Political party	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1954–1966) Syria-based Ba'ath Party (Syrian branch: (1966–2024)
Other political affiliations	National Progressive Front: (1972–2024)
Alma mater	University of Damascus

Biography

Born at Al-Tall, al-Ahmar joined the Ba'ath Party in the 1950s and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Damascus in 1964. Soon after, he was appointed as a governor of Hama (1967–1969) then Idlib (1969–1970). In 1970, the regional Ba'ath conference elected him to the Syrian Regional Command together with Hafez Al-Assad after an internal coup in the party that expelled Salah Jadid's faction from power. A few months later, Assad's faction held a meeting and appointed a new National Command that elected Assad as a general secretary and Ahmar his deputy. This National Command is competing with another one that was based in Iraq on being the sole legitimate National Command.

In 1980, al-Ahmar was re-elected with Assad into the same positions they held since 1971. Since the death of Assad in 2000, Ahmar became the highest ranked Ba'ath member in Syria, while Bashar al-Assad is the general-secretary of the Syrian Regional Command.

On 25 July 2013, al-Ahmar was the head of a Ba'ath Party delegation visiting North Korea.^[2]

At the 14th Conference of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in 2017, Bashar al-Assad was elected the Secretary General of the National Council, replacing al-Ahmar.^[3] A year later, he stepped down from his position as Assistant Secretary General, handing it over to Hilal Hilal.^[4]