Hawrani, Akram al- (1911-1996): Syrian politician. He was born in Hama, central Syria. He was educated in the schools of Hama and Damascus and graduated from the Damascus School of Law in 1936. He worked as a lawyer before being elected as a member of Parliament in 1943. He joined the Syrian Nationalist Social Party in 1936 and participated in organizing peasant strikes and riots around Hama in the 1940s. He assumed the Ministry of Defense for a short period in 1949. In 1950, he established the Arab Socialist Party, which was later merged with the Baath Party, established by Salah Bitar and Michel Aflaq, to form the Baath Arab Socialist Party in 1952. He led the opposition to Adib Al-Shishakli's dictatorship. He supported the union of Syria and Egypt in 1958 and was appointed vice President of the United Arab Republic. But he resigned and moved to Lebanon in 1959. After Syria's secession in 1961, he returned to Damascus to join the cabinet. In March 1963, a coup d'etat brought Baath Party to power, and Hawrani had little influence on Syrian politics thereafter. He spent the rest of his life moving between Iraq, Lebanon, France and Jordan, where he died in 1996.