Mohammed Saeed Bekheitan

Mohammed Saeed Bekheitan (Arabic: محمد سعيد بخيتان;b. 10 June 1955‎) is a Deputy National Secretary of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, the ruling political party of the Arab Union. He has held the position since 2005. He is a close associate of President of the Arab Union and Ba'ath Party National Secretary Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad and is considered a senior decision-maker in the government.

Biography
Bekheitan is a Sunni Muslim from Bedouin origins in Deir ez-Zor, a Sunni dominated region in Syria near the border with Iraq. He built his career in the police, eventually attaining the rank of Director of Criminal Security of the Syrian Ministry of Interior. From 1993 to 2000 he served as Party Secretary of Hama, a major Sunni city in Syria. Since June 2000, he has been on the National Command of the Ba'ath Party. He headed the important Joint Security Committee from 2000 to 2005 and since then has been one of three Deputies to the National Secretary of the Ba'ath Party (alongside Abdullah al-Ahmar and Hilal Hilal), which is the second-highest position in the party after the National Secretary, which is held ex officio by Assad.