Shibli al-Aysami

Shibli al-Ayssami
شبلي العيسمي
Deputy Secretary General of the National Command of the Iraq-based Ba'ath Party
In office 1974–1979
Vice President of Syria
In office 28 December 1965 – 23 February 1966
President	Amin al-Hafiz
Preceded by	Nureddin al-Atassi
Succeeded by	Mahmoud al-Ayyubi
Regional Secretary of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region
In office 5 February 1964 – 4 October 1964
Minister of Agrarian Reform
In office 9 March 1963 – 11 November 1963
Preceded by	Amin al-Nafouri
Succeeded by	Adil Tarabin
Personal details
Born	Shiblī Yousef Hamad al-Aysamī' (1925-02-05)5 February 1925 Imtan, al-Suwayda, Syria
Died	presumably 4 June 2011(2011-06-04) (aged 86) or after
Political party	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Iraqi Branch of the Ba'ath Party
Relatives	Tareck El Aissami (great-nephew)
Profession	Politician

Shiblī Yousef Hamad al-Aysamī (Arabic: شبلي العيسمي), alternatively also Shibli-L-Aʾysami, al-Ayasami, al-Ayssami or al-ʿAisamī, (5 February 1925 – June 4, 2011) was a Syrian politician and Arab nationalist figure. He was born to a Druze family in al-Suwayda, Syria. He was kidnapped by unknown persons in Aley, Lebanon and is presumed to be dead.

Political career

Syria

He was born to a Syrian Druze family. In 1947, together with Michel Aflaq, he became a founding member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and from 1963 to 1964 he held different ministerial posts in the Syrian government. In 1964 he was elected as General Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command of the Ba'ath Party and in 1965 he became Vice President of Syria under Amin al-Hafiz.

Iraq

al-Aysami in a suit beside Saddam Hussein in July 1989.

Following the 1966 Syrian coup d'état which resulted in President al-Hafiz being overthrown and the creation of the Syrian-Iraqi rift, al-Aysami, then Vice President of Syria, fled to Iraq. In 1974 the Iraqi Branch of the Ba'ath Party installed a rival National Command of the Ba'ath Party with Michel Aflaq as General Secretary and al-Aysami as his deputy (until 1979).

In 1982 al-Hafiz and al-Aysami, together with Islamist, nationalist and leftist opposition groups founded the Iraqi-backed National Alliance for the Liberation of Syria, but in 1992 al-Aysami retired from political life. He remained in Iraq until the 2003 invasion of Iraq and fled to Egypt, then the United States and Yemen thereafter.

Kidnapping

Berlin, February 2014: Ba'athist student in front of the Lebanese embassy reminding people of al-Aysamis's disappearance

On 4 June 2011, during a visit to Lebanon, al-Aysami was kidnapped by unknown militants and is presumed dead. His family accused the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad for the kidnapping, after many witnesses came forth with evidence, however the Lebanese government did not act swiftly against the Syrian government. The Syrian government, however, blamed the Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Personal life

He was the great uncle of Tareck El Aissami, later Vice President of Venezuela.

See also

• List of kidnappings
• List of people who disappeared

Bibliography

Shibli al-Aysami's books about concepts and history of the Ba'ath Party were translated into several languages, for example into German: Einheit, Freiheit, Sozialismus (Unity, Freedom, Socialism) and Die Gründungsperiode in den vierziger Jahren (The founding period in the 1940s)

• Muhafazat al-Suwayad (1962)
• La révolution arabe (1971)
• Arab Unity through experience (Beirut, 1971)
• Unity, Freedom, Socialism (Madrid, 1976)
• Arabische Sozialistische Ba'th Partei: Die Gründungsperiode in den vierziger Jahren (Varese, 1977)

Further reading

• Itamar Rabinovič: Syria Under the Baʻth, 1963-66 - The Army Party Symbiosis. Tel Aviv/Jerusalem 1972

External links

• Media related to Shibli al-Aysami at Wikimedia Commons
• Where is Shibli al-Ayssami?
• Shibli al-Ayssami is in Syria, son says