A meeting of three Arab leaders in Cairo in April 1963. From left to right: President Houari Boumédienne of Algeria, General Lu’ayy al-Atasi of Syria, and President Gamal Abd al-Nasser of Egypt. When this picture was taken, less than one month after the Baath Party came to power in March 1963, General Atasi was serving as president of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), vested with presidential authority although real power lay in the hands of the Military Committee of the Baath Party and its strongmen, Salah Jadid, Mohammad Umran, and Hafez al-Asad.