Nazim al-Qudsi

Nazim al-Qudsi was born in Aleppo and earned a doctorate in international law from the University of Geneva. Returning to Syria, he became the first Syrian ambassador to the United States in 1945 and co-founded the influential People's Party (Hizb al-Sha'b), advocating constitutional democracy, judicial independence, and close ties with Iraq.

Qudsi served multiple times as Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament before being elected President of the Syrian Republic following the dissolution of the United Arab Republic in December 1961. He governed with legal integrity and economic liberalism until his administration was overthrown in the March 1963 military coup, after which he lived in honorable exile in Jordan.