The United Arab Republic (UAR; Arabic: الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, romanized: al-Jumhūriyya al-ʿArabiyya al-Muttaḥida) was a sovereign state in the Middle East that existed from 1958 to 1971, though its union between Egypt and Syria lasted only from 1958 to 1961. It was initially a short-lived political union between Egypt (including Egyptian-governed Gaza) and Syria from 1958 until Syria seceded from the union following the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. Egypt was known officially as the “United Arab Republic” until 1971. The republic was led by Gamal Abdel Nasser as the Egyptian president.
The UAR was a member of the United Arab States, a loose confederation with the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, which was dissolved in 1961.
Map of the United Arab Republic
The Rise of Pan-Arabism and the Formation of the UAR
In 1952, after the creation of the Republic of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser pursued the unification of all Arab nations, Pan-Arabism. Nasser was the leading Arab proponent of Pan-Arab Nationalism. He proposed the merging of individual Arab states into one Arab entity. Another keypoint of this ideology was to rid the Arab world from Western influences. Pan-Arab sentiment traditionally was very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular heroic figure throughout the Arab world following the 1956 Tripartite Aggression. There was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nasser's Egypt.
Syria's and Egypt's relations improved in 1955 when they signed their first military agreement. In 1958 the Syrian government proposed a union with Egypt. The Syrian government feared a communist take-over and they felt intimidated by the Baghdad pact which included neighboring Jordan and Iraq. There was also the threat of war with Turkey after skirmishes at the border. In Syria the worker's unions and the socialist party thought that a union with the socialistic Egypt of Nasser would help speed up the process of Syria's ‘conversion’ to socialism. Also the landowning elites and the bourgeoisie thought the union with Egypt would improve the economic situation in Syria. For Nasser it was an opportunity to make the first step in his dream of creating a Pan-Arab nation.
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In mid-1957, Western powers began to worry that Syria was close to a Communist takeover; it had a highly organized Communist Party and the newly appointed army's chief of staff, Afif al-Bizri, was a Communist sympathizer. This caused the Syrian Crisis of 1957 after which Syrians intensified their efforts to unite with Egypt. Nasser told a Syrian delegation, including President Shukri al-Quwatli and Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm, that they needed to rid their government of Communists, but the delegation countered and warned him that only total union with Egypt would end the "Communist threat." According to Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Nasser initially resisted a total union with Syria, favoring instead a federal union.
On 11 January 1958, the Syrian Chief of Staff Afif al-Bizri headed a Syrian delegation composed of military officers which came uninvited and unannounced to Cairo. The delegation was received by Egyptian Chief of Staff Abdel Hakim Amer and petitioned for a Syrian-Egyptian union. Nasser's final terms for the union were decisive and non-negotiable: "a plebiscite, the dissolution of parties, and the withdrawal of the army from politics". While the plebiscite seemed reasonable to most Syrian elites, the latter two conditions were extremely worrisome. They believed it would destroy political life in Syria.
Despite these concerns, the Syrian officials knew it was too late to turn back. Caught between Western and Soviet pressures, the members of the elite in Syria viewed the merger with Egypt as the least bad option to insulate from either side. Egyptian and Syrian leaders signed the protocols, although Azm did so reluctantly.
Nasser's Leadership and the Structure of the UAR
Nasser became the republic's president and very soon carried out a crackdown against the Syrian Communists and opponents of the union. Advocates of the union believed that Nasser would use the Ba'ath Party for ruling Syria.
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Nasser gave each of the provinces two vice-presidents, assigning Boghdadi and Abdel Hakim Amer to Egypt and Sabri al-Asali and Akram al-Hourani - a leader of the Ba'ath - to Syria. Though Nasser allowed former Ba'ath Party members to hold prominent political positions, they never reached positions as high in the government as did the Egyptian officials. In the Syrian Ministry of Industry, for example, seven of the top thirteen positions were filled by Egyptians. In the General Petroleum Authority, four of the top six officials were Egyptian.
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In the fall of 1958, Nasser formed a tripartite committee, consisting of Zakaria Mohieddin, al-Hawrani, and Bitar to oversee the affairs in Syria.
Flag of the United Arab Republic
Growing Opposition and the Dissolution of the UAR
In Syria, opposition to union with Egypt mounted. Syrian Army officers resented being subordinate to Egyptian officers, and Syrian Bedouin tribes received money from Saudi Arabia to prevent them from becoming loyal to Nasser. Also, Egyptian-style land reform was resented for damaging Syrian agriculture, the Communists began to gain influence, and the intellectuals of the Ba'ath Party who supported the union rejected the one-party system.
Mustafa al-Barudi, the Syrian Minister of Propaganda, stated that 'the smallest member of the (Egyptian) retinue thought that he had inherited our country. In Egypt, the situation was more positive, with a GNP growth of 4.5 per cent and a rapid growth of industry.
Instead of a federation of two Arab peoples, as many Syrians had imagined, the UAR turned into a state completely dominated by Egyptians. Syrian political life was also diminished, as Nasser demanded all political parties in Syria to be dismantled. In the process, the strongly centralized Egyptian state imposed Nasser's socialistic political and economic system on weaker Syria, creating a backlash from the Syrian business and army circles, which resulted in the Syrian coup of 28 September 1961, and the end of the UAR.
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On 28 September a group of officers staged a coup and declared Syria's independence from the UAR. Though the coup leaders were willing to renegotiate a union under terms they felt would put Syria on an equal footing with Egypt, Nasser refused such a compromise. He initially considered sending troops to overthrow the new regime, but chose not to once he was informed that the last of his allies in Syria had been defeated.
In speeches that followed the coup, Nasser declared he would never give up his goal of an ultimate Arab union.
Aftermath and Legacy
From 5 to 10 June in 1967, Israel invaded Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War. Egypt recovered partial sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula in 1978, but only after agreeing to recognize Israel. Anwar Sadat, who reversed many of the socialist reforms enacted under Nasser, extended diplomatic recognition to Israel despite their ongoing occupation of lands seized in 1967. Israel maintained an occupation of these territories and created illegal settlements.
After Qasim's overthrow in 1963 the union idea resurrected with the proposal of Egypt, Iraq, and Syria reforming the UAR. A new flag was proposed, with three stars symbolizing the three states constituting the proposed union. However, the plan for a tri-partite union never materialised. Iraq continued to use the three-star flag and later adopted it as the national flag.
The UAR adopted a flag based on the Arab Liberation Flag of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but with two stars to represent the two parts of the UAR. From 1980 to 2024 this was the official flag of Syria. In 1963, Iraq adopted a flag that was similar but with three stars, representing the hope that Iraq would join the UAR.
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