Salah Jadid

Salah Jadid (1926? — August 19, 1993, Arabic: صلاح جديد) was a Syrian general and political figure in the Baath Party. He was the de facto head of government of Syria from 1966 until he was deposed in 1970.

Under Jadid's rule, Syria firmly aligned itself with the Soviet bloc. Domestically, Jadid attempted a socialist reformation of Syrian society, but public support for his regime declined following Syria's defeat in the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel captured the Golan Heights.

In 1970, when conflict erupted between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian army, Jadid sent Syrian-controlled Palestinian troops of the nominally PLO-run Palestinian Liberation Army, based in Syria, into Jordan in order to help the PLO. This action was not supported by a more pragmatic Baath faction under the control of Defence Minister Hafez al-Assad. Because of this, al-Assad launched an intra-party coup against Jadid, dubbed the Corrective Movement, and he had Jadid arrested. The deposed ruler would die while still in prison, while al-Assad would remain in power until his death in 2000.

Further reading

Rachel Bronson, "Thicker than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia", 2006, p. 109.