Abdul Rahman al-Bazzaz (Arabic: عبد الرحمن البزاز;‎ 20 February 1913 – 28 June 1973)[1] was an Iraqi politician, reformist and writer who served as prime minister of Iraq from 1965 to 1966 and as the interim president in 1966.

A pan-Arab nationalist politician, Al-Bazzaz served as the Dean of Baghdad Law College prior to his appointment as prime minister.

During the 1930s, he became an affiliate of the Muthanna and Jawwal clubs, the academic focus of which was pan-Arabism and encouraging Arab nationalism.

The Muthanna Club was established in Baghdad in 1935 and was an influential radical pan-Arab and pan-Islamist fascist society which collapsed with the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani rebellion.

[citation needed] After the war, al-Bazzaz was chosen as the dean of the Baghdad Law College.

He signed a petition that was very critical of the Iraqi government's stand during the Suez crisis under the premiership of Nuri as-Said, a staunch opponent of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Al-Bazzaz strongly promoted the rule of law and wanted to see an end to military officers dominating Iraq's politics as they had since the revolution in July 1958.

During his time as prime minister, Al-Bazzaz's government became increasingly controlled by civilian politicians.

As prime minister, Al-Bazzaz held numerous news conferences and appeared on radio and television.

Al-Bazzaz announced the First Five Year Plan which advocated prudent socialism and attempted to balance the public and private sectors.

He favoured a theory of prudent socialism which sought to increase production without abandoning equal distribution.

This was to be achieved through a twelve-point agreement whose purpose was to provide constitutional recognition to the Kurds and to recognize Kurdish as an official language of Iraq.

The Ba'athists and Nasserists accused al-Bazzaz of being an adversary of Arab socialism and being against the proposed union of Egypt and Iraq.