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Fuad al-Rikabi (1931 – November 1971) was an Iraqi politician and a founder of the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. Al-Rikabi became the Secretary of Iraqi Regional Command of the Ba'ath Party in 1954 and held the post until 1959. Throughout his term of leadership, the Iraqi Regional Branch expanded its membership and became a leading party in Iraq's political landscape. Following the 14 July Revolution of 1958 which toppled the monarchy, al-Rikabi was appointed Minister of Development in Abd al-Karim Qasim's unity government. As soon as the government was established, a power struggle quickly began between Qasim, an Iraqi nationalist who supported the Iraqi Communist Party, and Abdul Salam Arif, an Arab nationalist. Al-Rikabi supported the latter. Along with other cabinet members, al-Rikabi resigned in protest when Arif lost the power struggle in late 1958. Al-Rikabi and the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party came to the conclusion that the only way to expedite Iraq's entry into the United Arab Republic was to assassinate Qasim. The assassination attempt failed, and most of the leading Ba'athists and co-conspirators, including al-Rikabi, fled to Syria. Shortly after, on 29 November 1959, the Iraqi Regional Command was dissolved. Al-Rikabi supported the Nasserist faction—supporters of Gamal Abdel Nasser—in a power struggle within the Ba'ath Party in the late 1950s against the Aflaqites, supporters of Michel Aflaq. He agreed with Abdullah Rimawi's observation that the National Command, the ruling organ of the Ba'ath Party, had deviated from Ba'athist thought. Al-Rikabi tried but failed to get the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Ba'ath Party to break away from the National Command, and on 15 June 1961 he was expelled from the party. From then on al-Rikabi was a prominent Nasserite, active first in Rimawi's Revolutionary Ba'ath Command and then in Arif's Arab Socialist Union. Following the Ba'ath Party's seizure of power in the 17 July Revolution of 1968, al-Rikabi was arrested. He was killed by fellow inmates according to an official account, media unaffiliated to the Iraqi state claimed he was killed by the Iraqi security services. ==Early life and career== Al-Rikabi was born into a Shia family in Nasiriyah in 1937. He attended the engineering school in Baghdad. The Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was established either in 1951 or 1952. While there is some confusion between the various sources, some historians claim Rikabi became Regional Secretary in either 1951 or 1952 and was the Iraqi Regional Branch's first head, others claim that he took the post first in 1954 (succeeding Fakhri Qadduri). The party initially consisted of a majority of Shia Muslims, as al-Rikabi recruited supporters mainly from his friends and family, but it slowly became Sunni-dominated. Between 1952 and 1963, 54 per cent of the members of the Ba'ath Regional Command were considered Shia Muslims. This majority is largely explained by al-Rikabi's effective recruitment drive in Shia areas. Between 1963 and 1970, after al-Rikabi's resignation, Shia representation in the Regional Command dropped to 14 percent. However, of the three factions which existed within the Ba'ath Party, two had Shia leaders. According to police records membership of the Iraqi Regional Branch had increased to 289 by 1955. Two years later al-Rikabi affiliated the Iraqi Regional Branch with the National Front, an opposition group that consisted of the Iraqi Communist Party, the National Democratic Party, and the Istiqlal Party. The front welcomed the 14 July Revolution of 1958, which toppled the Iraqi monarchy. Following the revolution, Iraqi Regional Branch membership increased; 300 people had joined the party, 1,200 were organized helpers, 2,000 were organized supporters, and an estimated 10,000 people were unorganized supporters according to al-Rikabi. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fuad al-Rikabi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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