Mustafa al-Shihabi

During World War I, al-Shihabi joined the Arab Revolt in an attempt to free the Levant region from Ottoman Turkish control.

[1] In 1928, while serving as the director of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, al-Shihabi joined the National Bloc in opposition to the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.

He was appointed as the governor of Latakia by President Shukri al-Quwatli, and was instrumental in the defeat of Sulayman al-Murshid's Alawite uprising.

Al-Shihabi was promoted to the rank of secretary-general of the Syrian Council of Ministers in addition to second terms as the governor of both Aleppo and Latakia.

Unlike other Quwalti-era officials, al-Shihabi remained in favor with Husni al-Za'im after the latter's CIA-supported coup d'état.