Hassan al-Hakim

Infobox_President
name = Hassan al-Hakim
حسن الحكيم


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order = Prime Minister of Syria
term_start = September 12 1941
term_end = April 19 1942
predecessor = Khalid al-Azm
successor = Husni al-Barazi
term_start1 = August 9 1951
term_end1 = November 13 1951
predecessor1 = Khalid al-Azm
successor1 = Zaki al-Khatib
birth_date = 1886
birth_place = Damascus, Syria
death_date = 1988 (aged 102)
death_place = Damascus, Syria
spouse =
party =
religion =

Hassan al-Hakim ( _ar. حسن الحكيم) (1886 – 1988), Syrian nationalist politician during the French Mandate, was a member of the Iron Hand Society and the first People's Party and a close associate of Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar. The French chose him to be prime minister from September 1941 to April 1942. Hakim was a leading independent pro-Hashemite politician in the early years of independence and favored unity with Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. He also called for Syria to align itself with the Western camp during the Cold War. In the unstable climate of Adib al-Shishakli's first two years, governments rose and fell quickly. With relations between the army and the People's Party deteriorating, Hakim was called upon in August 1951 to form the fifth government in under two years. The major issue during his brief tenure was whether Syria should participate in a pro-Western Middle Eastern defense organization put forward by Great Britain, France, and the United States in October. When his foreign minister bluntly attacked the proposal, the pro-Western Hakim could not hold his cabinet together, and he resigned in November.

References

* Commins, David Dean. Historical Dictionary of Syria, p. 119. Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 0810849348.