AHC/WI: Shia Baathist Iraq

With a POD of 1954, have Iraq go Baathist and have a Shi'i leader.

What would a Baathist regime in Iraq look like if it were led by a Shi'i?

Who might lead it?

What would it's foreign relations look like? Assuming Syria is still led by Assad ITTL, are the other Mideast countries nervous about the spread of Shiite states? What might it's relations with Syria and Imperial Iran look like?
 
The only scenario I can think of off the top of my head is having Nadhim Kazar's coup against Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein succeed. Kazar was probably the highest ranking Shiite in the Iraqi Ba'ath Party and head of the Directorate of General Security, as well as one of Saddam Hussein's mentors.
 
The only scenario I can think of off the top of my head is having Nadhim Kazar's coup against Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein succeed. Kazar was probably the highest ranking Shiite in the Iraqi Ba'ath Party and head of the Directorate of General Security, as well as one of Saddam Hussein's mentors.

Where did you get this information? The Wiki lacks information on Nadhim Kazar and reroutes to the Directorate of General Security page itself. I'm curious were I can read about Kazar and his failed coup.

But while digging I thought of another scenario. Faud al-Rikabi brought a lot of Shias into the Baath party, and until the early 1960s the Party was about 50/50 before he got squashed and it become Sunni dominated. He was de facto head of the Shia wing, so maybe give him an important position and then have him build the necessary apparatus for a coup himself.

Anybody else know who else could work? Any other opinions?
 
Iran and Iraq won't vote each other as negatively as before. That or racial or geopolitical or theological-secular-conflict would take the place of the Shia-Sunni rivalry.
 
Iran and Iraq won't vote each other as negatively as before. That or racial or geopolitical or theological-secular-conflict would take the place of the Shia-Sunni rivalry.

Perhaps the Shah wouldn't let Khomeini go to Iraq, and instead exiles him to Saudi Arabia? Definitely means it's harder for Islamic Revolution.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
If this occurs, expect closer ties with Syria, but maybe or maybe not with Iran. Ba'athism at its inception was secular and socialist, drawing from the Nasserist school of thought. Shiite fundamentalism does not bode well with this until Ba'athism became tied more directly to ethnic privilege and therefore the Shiite connection becomes more important.
 
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