Abdullah al-Ahmar عبدالله الأحمر
Ahmar during an official visit to Romania in 1978
Assistant Secretary General of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office 17 November 1971 – 26 October 2018
President	Hafez al-Assad Bashar al-Assad
Preceded by	Hafez al-Assad
Succeeded by	Hilal Hilal
Member of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch
In office 13 November 1970 – 9 February 2005
Personal details
Born	(1936-06-06) 6 June 1936 (age 87) Al-Tall, French Mandate
Political party	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1954–1966) Syria-based Ba'ath Party (Syrian branch: (1966–present)
Other political affiliations	National Progressive Front: (1972–present)
Alma mater	University of Damascus

Abdullah Al-Ahmar (Arabic: عبدالله الأحمر; born 6 June 1936)^[1] is a Syrian politician and prominent member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.

Biography

Born at Al-Tall, Ahmar joined the Ba'ath Party in the 1950s and graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Damascus in 1964. Soon after, he was appointed as a governor of Hama (1967–1969) then Idlib (1969–1970). In 1970, the regional Ba'ath conference elected him to the Syrian Regional Command together with Hafez Al-Assad after an internal coup in the party that expelled Salah Jadid's faction from power. A few months later, Assad's faction held a meeting and appointed a new National Command that elected Assad as a general secretary and Ahmar his deputy. This National Command is competing with another one that was based in Iraq on being the sole legitimate National Command.

In 1980, Ahmar was re-elected with Assad into the same positions they held since 1971. Since the death of Assad in 2000, Ahmar is the highest ranked Ba'ath member in Syria, while Bashar Al-Assad is the general-secretary of the Syrian Regional Command.

On 25 July 2013, Abdullah al-Ahmar was the head of a Ba'ath Party delegation visiting North Korea.^[2]