Mr. Abdul Halim Khaddam was born in 1932 in the city of Baniyas, Tartous Governorate.

He joined the ranks of the Baath Party in 1949 and worked as Secretary of the Banias Division. He obtained a law degree from the University of Damascus in 1952 and was imprisoned several times during the rule of President Adeeb Shishakli for his partisan activity. He was exiled with the Baathist leaders to Cairo in 1959 and worked there in the Department of Social Affairs and Labor and returned to Syria after the separation to work as a lawyer in the city of Latakia, and was then chosen as a member of the leadership of the Latakia branch of the Arab Socialist Baath Party.