Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-led faction)

Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي
Secretary General	Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
Founded	February 1968 (February 1968)
Dissolved	1 May 2003 (1 May 2003) (National leadership stopped functioning, but regional chapters still active)
Split from	Ba'ath Party (unitary)
Headquarters	Baghdad, Iraq
Ideology	Neo-Ba'athism, Arab nationalism, Saddamism
Colors	Black, red, white and green (Pan-Arab colors)
Party flag

Egyptian branch
Homepage	Facebook Twitter

Palestinian branch
Founded	1969
Secretary-General	Rakad Salem
Newspaper	Sawt al-Jamahir
Homepage	alfpalestine.org

The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (also spelled Ba'th or Baath, "resurrection" or "renaissance"; Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي‎‎ Ḥizb Al-Ba'aṯ Al-'Arabī Al-Ištirākī Syriac: ܓܒܐ ܕܚܕܕܬܐ ܥܪܒܝܐ ܫܘܬܦܘܬܝܐ‎ Gabbā da-ḥḏadtā 'Arbāyā Šāwtāp̄ūṯāyā), also referred to as the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement, was a neo-Ba'athist political party headquartered in Baghdad, Iraq. It is one of two parties (with identical names) which emerged from the 1966 split of the original Ba'ath Party.

In 1966, the original Ba'ath Party was split in half; one half was led by the Damascus leadership of the Ba'ath Party which established a party in Syria, and the other half with its leadership in Baghdad. Both Ba'ath parties retained the same name and maintained parallel structures in the Arab world, but became so antagonistic that Syria — led by its Ba'ath party — became the only Arab state to support Iran against Iraq during the bloody Iran–Iraq War. Ba'athists seized power in Iraq for the first time in 1963, but were deposed several months later. The party's regional organisation governed Iraq between 1968 and 2003, for many years under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region was banned in 2003 by the Coalition Provisional Authority following the invasion of Iraq.

Note: for the 1st–8th National Congresses, see the national congresses held by the unified, pre-February 1966 Ba'ath Party

Following the 1966 Syrian coup d'état, which overthrew the Aflaqite faction led by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Munif al-Razzaz and others, the original Ba'ath Party split into Iraqi-dominated and a Syrian-dominated ba'ath movements. The two movements established separate National Commands; the National Command was in theory the highest party body in both movements, and controlled their respective ba'athist movements. However, in both countries the National Command was under the control of its respective Regional Command. In the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath movement, all National Command members came from their regional branch; for instance, there was always a member representing the Ba'ath Party branch in Jordan. In theory the National Command was the highest party organ between national congresses, with the power to control the affairs of Regional Commands in other regions (countries).

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Wikipedia