On February 1st, 1958, the United Arab Republic was founded as a first step towards the creation of a bigger pan-Arab state. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt, received the concept from a group of Syrian political and military figures who supported the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. In Syria, there has long been a strong sense of Arab unity, and following the 1956 Suez-Crisis, Nasser was well-linked in the Arab world. In Syria, there was a lot of public support for joining Egypt.
The Syrian Crisis of 1957 was brought on by Western powers' concerns that a Communist takeover of Syria was imminent in the middle of 1957, Syrians strengthened their efforts to merge with Egypt, and Nasser informed a Syrian delegation that they needed to cleanse their administration of Communists. The delegation retaliated, telling him that the "Communist threat" could only be eliminated by complete union with Egypt. Nasser initially favored a federal union over a complete union with Syria. However, he finally agreed on a thorough merger owing to his fear of a Communist takeover.
Nasser chose a speedy merger when, on January 11, 1958, a delegation from Syria led by military commander Afif al-Bizri personally urged Syrian-Egyptian union. Only those Syrians who support unification were aware of this delegation beforehand. "A plebiscite, the dissolution of parties, and the withdrawal of the army from politics" were the key and inflexible conditions Nasser set for the unification. The latter two factors were quite concerning, even if the majority of Syrian elites thought the vote made sense. They had the opinion that it would ruin Syria's political system.
The Syrian authorities were aware that it was too late to turn back despite their worries. On February 21, 1958, a ballot was held, with Egyptians and Syrians voting in favor of the union. On February 22, the outcome was made public, and Nasser was named the new leader of the United Arab Republic. Prime Minister Khaled al-Azem grudgingly signed the protocols, but so did the leader of Egypt and Syria. After being elected president of the country, Nasser immediately launched a campaign of repression against the Syrian Communists and union opponents, which included removing Bizri and Azem from position.
The socialist Ba'ath Party sought to coexist in power with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser, who did not intend for power to be distributed equitably, enacted a new interim constitution that dissolved all political organizations, including the Ba'ath Party. Former Ba'ath Party members were permitted to occupy political office, although they were never given the same level of authority as Egyptian government officials. With Syrian army commanders grumbling about being subservient to Egyptian officers and Syrian Bedouin tribes getting funding from Saudi Arabia to keep them from siding with Nasser, opposition to the union with Egypt increased in Syria. Additionally, Syrian agriculture was hurt by Egyptian-style land reform, and the Communists started to take power. The one-party system was despised by the Ba'ath Party intellectuals who favored the merger. The situation was better in Egypt, where the GNP increased by 4.5% and the industrial sector expanded quickly. Nasser turned the Egyptian press into his personal megaphone in 1960 when he nationalized it.
In reaction to the creation of the UAR, the combined state between Jordan and Iraq was establish as the Arab Federation on February 14, 1958. Jordan and Iraq agreed to create a single military command with a single military budget, with Jordan contributing 20% and Iraq providing the remaining 80%. Other countries of the globe saw the merger as a serious danger to Jordan. Jordanian plotters against King Hussein were said to be receiving support and provocation from Syria. The pressure was increased by Egypt's own position as a state antagonistic to Western intervention in the area (and therefore to the tight ties between the British, in particular, and the Jordanian and Iraqi monarchy).
President Camille Chamoun of adjacent Lebanon worriedly observed the formation of the UAR. A civil war broke out in the nation by May 1958 when pro-Nasser forces, primarily made up of Muslims and Druze, clashed with the Maronites, who tended to favor Chamoun. The former supported joining the UAR, whilst the latter dreaded the new nation as a communist satellite. Despite the fact that Nasser did not desire Lebanon because he saw it as a peculiar situation, he felt compelled to help his loyalists and assigned Abdel Hamid Sarraj the duty of providing them with money, light weapons, and officer training.
The Hashemite monarchy of Iraq, which had been formed by King Faisal I in 1921 with the help of the British, was overthrown as a consequence of the 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état which occurred in Iraq on that date. The soldiers put King Faisal II, Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said to death. The next day US Marines and British special forces landed in Lebanon and in Jordan, respectively, to safeguard the two nations from falling to Pro-Nasser troops. According to Nasser, Arab nationalism was made possible by the Iraqi revolution. The majority of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council's (RCC) members were in support of joining the UAR, but the new Prime Minister, Abdel Karim Qasim was against it.
Faud Chebab was elected as the next President of Lebanon in July after Lebanese President Chamoun was persuaded not to run for re-election by the US government. Nasser emphasized to during their meeting at the Syrian-Lebanese border that he never desired Lebanon's unification and simply desired to prevent it from being used as a base against the UAR. The US set a timeframe for its withdrawal from the region, and Nasser stopped supporting its supporters as a result of their meeting, which put an end to the problem in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Iraq became the UAR's most benevolent Arab state in the interim when its monarchy was overthrown in 1958, but negotiations on union were shelved in 1959. The idea of trilateral union between Egypt, Iraq, and Syria also fell through.
The official flag of Syria was formerly the UAR flag, which included two stars to symbolize the country's two section. Iraq's flag was similar but had three stars to represent the country's aspiration to join the UAR. The flags of Yemen, Egypt, and Sudan are likewise modelled on the Arab Liberation Flag.
The Egyptian president Nasser made an effort to improve the Syrian economy in 1960, but instead he nationalized both Syria and Egypt. Without seeking advice of Syrian economic professionals, the government assumed control of the cotton industry and all import-export businesses. Heavy industries, insurance, and banks were all nationalized. Nasser increased the scope of social justice principles by lowering the land cap and interest rates for farmers, enacting a 90% tax on income above £E10,000 and enabling worker and employee representation on corporate boards. Additionally, they received a 25% share of the company's profits and had their typical workweek cut from eight to seven without receiving a wage cut. But instead boosting either economy, these adjustments moved growth to the private sector.
Fall of UAR
The United Arab Republic (UAR), which was meant to be a union of two Arab peoples, instead turned into an Egypt-centric state. The socialist political and economic system of Nasser was imposed on Syria while the political parties in Syria were dissolved. This sparked retaliation from Syrian military and corporate sectors, which resulted in a coup in Syria in 1961 and the demise of the UAR. Even though the Ba'ath Party should have been his natural ally, Nasser was reluctant to share power with them and manipulated elections in favor of more conventionally conservative parties. After being named leader of the National Union in Syria, Colonel Abdul Hamid Sarraj (a member of the Syrian army and Nasser supporter) governed with a brutal security apparatus meant to crush resistance.
The Syrian Prime Minister and his cabinet were moved to Cairo in 1961 as a result of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of the UAR abolishing provincial administrations in an effort to centralize authority. Nasser was shocked when a group of Syrian officers launched a coup and declared Syria's independence from the UAR. Nasser was unaware of the rising instability in Syria. Nasser pondered deploying soldiers to remove the new government but finally decided not to. Nasser's pan-Arab aspirations suffered a serious setback when Syria seceded, underscoring the difficulties in forging a single Arab state.
Egypt kept the name "United Arab Republic" when Syria left the Union in 1961 until 1971. Israel occupied the Gaza strip, the West Bank, the Gola Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula from June 5 to June 10, 1967, as part of the six-day war. The Sinai Peninsula was ultimately given over to Egypt in 1978. Egypt did not take over control of the Gaza strip when Israel withdrew in 2005. The Islamist terrorist organization Hamas has been in charge of Gaza strip since 2007.
Image 1 : Source Stevan Kragujević, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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