Lutfi al-Haffar
| Lutfi al-Haffar لطفي الحفار |
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| 11th Prime Minister of Syria | |
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In office 24 February 1939 – 5 April 1939 |
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| President | Hashim al-Atassi |
| Preceded by | Jamil Mardam Bey |
| Succeeded by | Nasuhi al-Bukhari |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1891 Damascus, Ottoman Syria |
| Died | 1968 Damascus, Syria |
Lutfi al-Haffar (Arabic: لطفي الحفار) (1891–1968) was a Syrian businessman and politician. He was a founding member of the National Bloc and served as 11th Prime Minister of Syria in 1939.
Al-Haffar was born into the wealthy merchant Damascene family of al-Haffar. His early career was mostly devoted to his family's business in trade. He joined the Damascus Chamber of Commerce in 1922, and became its deputy president in 1924. In 1923 in response to the water shortages in Damascus, al-Haffar established the Ayn al-Fijeh Waterworks Company, which pumped water from the Ayn al-Fijeh spring in the Ghouta area to the city of Damascus and constructed the first modern public water system in the city. The project was an immediate success, and allowed the water from the Barada river to be used for other purposes like irrigation.
Al-Haffar's involvement in politics came through his alliance with nationalist leader Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar. Shahbandar and Haffar founded the People's Party, which was the first political party in Syria under the French Mandate. The party advocated the unity of Greater Syria, and the abolition of the French Mandate. The party was banned shortly thereafter by French authorities because of suspected links to the 1925 uprising in Jabal al-Druze. After the French bombardment of Damascus following the revolt, al-Haffar spearheaded a call to end armed resistance to the French in favor of political struggle.
Al-Haffar joined Ahmad Nami's cabinet as minister of public works and economy in April 1926, but resigned two months later in protest of French interference. He was arrested by the mandate authorities and detained until 1928.
In 1928 al-Haffar, along with a number of nationalist leaders, founded the National Bloc in Beirut. The Bloc, under the leadership of Hashim al-Atassi, became the central umbrella group for political resistance against the French occupation. Al-Haffar was elected to the national constitutional assembly in 1928, which was tasked with drafting Syria's first republican constitution.
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