The Ba’ath Party was set up by Michel Aflaq (1910-1989) a Christian and Salah al-Din al-Bitar (1912-1980) a Sunni Muslim. Their political vision was a mixture of Arab nationalism, Arab socialism, and anti-imperialism. By 1945, the Baathists decided to register their party to become an official party, but their application was rejected by the French mandate which administrated Syria. The theme ‘unity’ became an inspiration for Lebanon, Jordan and other Arab countries in 1948-1951. The connection for Arab nationalism became attractive and popular and Baatism spread out all over the Arab region. The Arab Baʿth Party merged with the Arab Socialist Movement, led by Akram al-Hawrani, in 1952 to form the Arab Socialist Baʿth Party. This was a relative success. It became the second-largest party in the Syrian parliament in the 1954 election. This and the increasing strength of the Syrian Communist Party led to the establishment of the United Arab Republic, a union of Egypt and Syria, in 1958.