Summary
The Egyptian-Syrian union created on 2/2/58; in Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace it was Syria’s counter-blow to Western and Israeli pressure in late 1957, answered by a British-sponsored Iraqi-Jordanian federation that lasted less than half a year, and afterwards the state whose president pronounced the Tripartite Declaration (1950) “dead and buried in the soil of Port-Said” while the United States ratified loans to it, including for the development of the Suez Canal (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.416, p.426, p.433).
Details
- The union followed a bitter anti-imperialist struggle in Jordan and Syria at the end of 1957, Turkish military exercises on Syria’s border, and threats from Turkey (Menderes), Iraq (Nuri Said) and Israel (Ben-Gurion): “Once again the various threats … produced the opposite result from what the West had anticipated. Instead of submitting to the pressure, the Syrians struck a counter-blow. On 2/2/58 an Egyptian-Syrian union was created, which was called the United Arab Republic (UAR)” (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.426).
- In response, an Iraqi-Jordanian federation was created (15/2/58) on Britain’s initiative and under its protection, lasting less than half a year; the anti-imperialist struggle meanwhile spread to Lebanon, theretofore considered a secure Western bulwark (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.426).
- In February 1960 Gamal Abd al-Nasser visited the UAR’s Syrian part, accompanied by statements against the 1950 Tripartite Declaration, declaring in Damascus on 22/2/60: “I declare in the name of the Arab people that the Declaration of the three Powers is dead and buried in the soil of Port-Said” (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.416).
- The USA ratified loans to the UAR, including a loan for the development of the Suez Canal, ignoring the detention of the Israeli-sent ships Inge Toft and Astypalea; and the US Department of Agriculture clarified that the UAR, as a recipient of US food surpluses, could refuse to ratify a transportation contract for any ship on the Arab countries’ “blacklist” (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.433).
Related pages
Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, Gamal Abd al-Nasser, Iraqi Revolution (1958), Tripartite Declaration (1950)