The Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party in Syria Ba’ath Party is the governing and organizing body of the Ba’ath Party in Syria. According to the Syrian constitution, the Regional Command has the power to nominate presidential candidates. While the constitution does not mention that the secretary of the Regional Command is the president of Syria, the charter of the National Progressive Front, to which the Ba’ath party belongs, states that the president and regional secretary is the head of the National National Front. It was previously called the National Leadership Council, or the National Command of the Baath Party in Syria, but on January 21, 2016, the Regional Command of the ruling Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party issued a decision according to which the party’s national leadership was finally dissolved and replaced by a national council headed by Bashar al-Assad. This was a result of two primary factors: The first is the weakness of the national leadership and its absence from the party scene for many decades, and the second is the implementation of the law establishing political parties, which prohibits parties established in Syria from opening offices abroad.