Salah al-Din al-Bitar (Arabic: صلاح الدين البيطار, romanized: Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn al-Bīṭār;‎ 1 January 1912 – 21 July 1980) was a Syrian politician who co-founded the Baʿath Party with Michel Aflaq in the early 1940s.

Bitar later served as prime minister in several early Ba'athist governments in Syria but became alienated from the party as it grew more radical.

In 1966 he fled the country, lived mostly in Europe and remained politically active until he was assassinated in Paris in 1980 by unidentified hitmen linked to the regime of Hafez al-Assad.

[1][2][3][4] According to historian Hanna Batatu, Bitar was born in the Midan area of Damascus in 1912; he was the son of a reasonably well-off Sunni Muslim grain merchant.

Bitar grew up in a conservative family atmosphere and attended a Muslim elementary school before receiving his secondary education in Maktab Anbar.

He was exposed to the political vicissitudes of the time, as Midan played a leading role in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 against France—then the mandatory and colonial power in Syria.

They were both interested in the political and intellectual movements of the time and began applying nationalist and Marxist ideas to the situation of their homeland.

[citation needed] In 1939, Aflaq and Bitar began to attract a small following of students, and in 1941 they issued leaflets agitating against French rule, using the title al-ihyaa' al-'arabi—"the Arab Resurrection".

Their first use of the name al-ba'ath al-'arabi—which has the same meaning—came some time later; it had already been adopted by Zaki al-Arsuzi—a nationalist activist from Iskandarun province in north-western Syria who had come to Damascus in the wake of his native area's annexation by Turkey.

Aflaq took the pre-eminent position of 'amid, sometimes translated as "doyen"; this made him the effective leader of the party with sweeping powers within the organization under the constitution adopted at the congress.

Bitar and Aflaq took refuge in neighboring Lebanon, where they came into contact with Akram al-Hawrani—an experienced politician who had recently established the Arab Socialist Party and had a considerable following among the peasantry of the Hama region in central Syria and a valuable foothold in the military officer corps.

Bitar was elected as a deputy for Damascus, defeating the secretary general of the Syrian Social National Party—one of the Ba'ath's bitterest ideological enemies.

[13] His signing both of these documents was used against him in the 1963 Unity Talks between Egypt, Iraq and Syria as proof of him lacking pro-Arab nationalist credentials.

[13] The manifesto, which was handwritten by Bitar, stated that Nasser had distorted "the idea of Arab nationalism" and accused him of strangling the "political and democratic life" in Syria.

[15] Bitar's first cabinet was appointed by the National Council for the Revolutionary Command (NCRC) on 9 March 1963 in the aftermath of the 1963 Syrian coup d'état.

[19] In the first round of negotiations, which lasted until 19 March when Bitar and Aflaq joined in, the Ba'ath Party was represented by Abd al-Karim Zuhur—the economy minister.

[22] Both parties were averse to power-sharing but the Nasserites were outmaneuvered following the purge of their supporters in the officer corps, which ended their struggle for control over Syria.

[22] The Military Committee was adamantly opposed to continued negotiations with Nasser and the Nasserites, and by the time of the purge, Aflaq and Bitar had given up on them.

[23] Rabinovich said that this move was intended to deceive the Egyptians and the Nasserites; Nasser had previously told Bitar that the first step to revolutionary change was the nationalization of the banking sector.

[26] The Syrian media and press reported in kind, but their communiques made clear distinctions between Nasser and the "incompetent" people within the Egyptian government.

[30] Bitar had promised to introduce a new agrarian law for some time; according to Rabinovich its publication was "probably fixed so as to serve the Ba'ath in its struggle against Hariri".

[35] The reconstituted party was divided into many factions which differed on policy issues, but most of them supported Aflaq's ouster as Secretary General of the National Command.

[35] Shufi's group, which controlled the Syrian Regional Command, became allies of the Military Committee in their fight to topple Aflaq and Bitar.

[36] A moderate faction within the Iraqi Regional Branch, headed by Talib El-Shibib and Hazim Jawad, still supported the National Command.

[38] Bitar was not elected to the National Command, and of the nine seats allotted to the Syrian and Iraqi Regional Branches, only three were won by moderates.

[41] Bitar was reappointed prime minister in the aftermath of the 1964 Hama riot but despite this, the power balance between the Aflaqite old guard and the Military Committee–Regionalist alliance remained unchanged.

"[43] On 27 May, the Presidential Council announced its support for Bitar's policies and said it would try to ensure freedom of speech by educating reactionary and undesirable elements within Syrian society.

[43] The old guard were humiliated, the new government led by Hafiz initiated several statist measures, and the Military Committee reduced the National Command to a formality.

[47] Both Aflaq and Bitar supported a direct approach against the Military Committee–Regionalist alliance, constantly pressing Razzaz to dissolve the Regional Command and to expel what they considered "deviators" from the party.

[47] They were incorrect; during a visit to several party branches within Syria, Razzaz learnt that the National Command lacked any significant support at the local level.