{{Short description|Syrian politician}} {{Ba'athism sidebar}} '''Wahib al-Ghanim''' (1919-2003) born in [[Antakya]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wahib al-Ghanem, a journey among people (İnsanlar arasında bir yolculuk) |url=http://asider.net/genel/wahib-al-ghanem-a-journey-among-people-insanlar-arasinda-bir-yolculuk/ |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=ASİ-DER |language=tr}}</ref> was a Syrian physician and politician. He was one of the co-founders of the [[Ba'ath Party]].
He was the spokesman for [[Zaki al-Arsuzi]]'s grouping of Arab nationalists that "wanted a stronger dose of [[socialism]] than the Damascus leaders", namely [[Michel Aflaq]] and [[Salah al-Din Bitar]], and made it a necessary condition for the unification of their respective camps into a single party.<ref name=seale1988>{{cite book | last = Seale | first = Patrick | title = Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East | publisher = University of California Press | date = 1988 | location = London, England | pages = [https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal/page/34 34] | url = https://archive.org/details/asadofsyriastrug00seal | url-access = registration | quote = Wahib al-Ghanim. | isbn = 0-520-06976-5 }}</ref><ref name=devlin1976>{{cite book | last = Devlin | first = John | title = The Ba'th Party: A History from Its Origins to 1966 | publisher = Hoover Institution Press | date = 1976 | location = Stanford, California | pages = 33 | isbn = 9780817965617 }}</ref>
From April 5–7, 1947, Ghanim, along with 247 others, took part in the founding conference of the Ba'ath Party, where he was elected to the executive committee, which also included Aflaq, Bitar, and [[Jalal al-Sayyid]]. In the same year, Ghanim created a Ba'athist cell in [[Latakia]]. [[Hafez al-Assad]], the future president of Syria and the father of former president [[Bashar al-Assad]], was one of the first to join.<ref name=seale1988 />
During the parliamentary elections of 1947 and 1949, Ghanim unsuccessfully tried to become the deputy for Latakia. He was an opponent of [[Adib Shishakli]], for which he faced persecution. In 1955 - after Shishakhli was deposed of - he joined the cabinet of [[Sabri al-Asali]] as health minister. Although Ghanim originally supported the [[United Arab Republic|1958 union with Egypt]], by 1961 he had changed his position and supported the coup that ended it.<ref>{{cite book | last = Moubayed | first = Sami | title = Steel & Silk: Men & Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 | publisher = Cune Press | date = 2006 | location = Seattle, US | pages = 18 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GF51Sml5WpcC&q=Wahib+al-Ghanim&pg=PA228 | isbn = 1-885942-40-0 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Ba'ath Party}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghanim, Wahib}} [[Category:1919 births]] [[Category:2003 deaths]] [[Category:Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region politicians]] [[Category:Members of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party]] [[Category:Syrian Arab nationalists]] [[Category:Syrian socialists]]
{{Syria-politician-stub}}