President of the Arab Union

The President of the Arab Union (Arabic: رئيس الاتِّحاد raʾīs al-ittiḥād; lit. "President of the Union") is the head of state of the Arab Union and its 20 republics. According to the constitution, the President of the Arab Union serves ex officio as commander-in-chief of the Union Defence Forces (UDF), the unified defence apparatus of the union.

The head of government (at the all-union level) is the Prime Minister, while each of the 20 republics (the federated states constituting the Arab Union) has its own respective head of government officially called the Governor, who oversees the respective republic's administration (known formally as a governorate), functioning as a tier between the baladiyāt (local councils) and the federal/central government.

The constitution calls for the direct, popular election of the President of the Union to a seven-year term; there is no constitutional limit to the number of terms a given president may serve, consecutively or otherwise.

The President is responsible for appointing the Prime Minister on advice of the Arab Congress.

By tradition, the President of the Arab Union is styled Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (خادم الحرمين الشريفين khādim al-ḥarimayn ash-sharīfayn), as Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam, are located in the Arab Union.

The official residence and workplace of the President of the Arab Union is Shams Palace in Artillery Heights, Nasser City. Bashar al-Assad became the third President of the Arab Union in July 2000, succeeding his late father, Hafez al-Assad; he has been re-elected thrice since, in 2007, 2014 and 2021, with the next presidential election scheduled for April 2028.