It developed out of the Awakening movements and is mostly made up of Sunni Muslim tribal leaders from Al-Anbar province, an ethnic Arab region.
The Awakening Councils had split into three parts by 2008, with Sheikh Hatem forming the National Front for the Salvation of Iraq, and Sheikh Hamid al-Heyes forming the Anbar Salvation Council.
The party did not run its own candidates for the Iraqi governorate elections of 2009, but instead supported those of the Anbar Salvation Council.
When rumours began to circulate of a merger between the State of Law Coalition and the Iraqi National Alliance Hatem threatened to leave the State of Law Coalition were such a merger to take place.
[2] Hatem has at other times claimed he has only entered politics to preserve the influence of his tribe; the Dulaim.