Fuad al-Rikabi

Fuad al-Rikabi
فؤاد الركابي
Minister of Rural Affairs
In office November 1964 – 10 July 1965
Prime Minister	Tahir Yahya
Preceded by	Post established
Succeeded by	Ahmad 'Abd al-Hadi al-Habboubi
Minister of Development
In office 14 July 1958 – 7 February 1959
Prime Minister	Abd al-Karim Qasim
Preceded by	Post established
Succeeded by	Talat al-Shaybani
Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
In office 1954 – 29 November 1959
National Secretary	Michel Aflaq
Preceded by	Fakhri Qadduri
Succeeded by	Talib Hussein ash-Shabibi
Member of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office June 1954 – August 1960
Member of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
In office December 1955 – 29 November 1959
Personal details
Born	1932 Nasiriyah, Kingdom of Iraq
Died	December 1971 Baghdad, Ba'athist Iraq
Political party	Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1951–1961) Arab Socialist Union
Religion	Shia Islam

Fuad al-Rikabi (Arabic: فؤاد الركابي, romanized: Fuʾād al-Riqābī;‎ 1932 – December 1971) was an Iraqi politician and the 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 was supported by 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.