United Arab Republic

The United Arab Republic was the beginning of the unification of the Arab League, which was one of the dreams of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. U.A.R was declared on February 22, 1958, with the signing of the Charter of the United Republic by Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. They chose Abdel Nasser as president and Cairo as the capital of the new republic.

United Arab Republic

## United Arab Republic

### Succeded by

* The Arab Republic of Egypt
* The Israeli Military Governorate
* Arabian Palestine
* Yemen Arab Republic
* Iraqi Republic
* Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
* Saudi Arabia
* Libyan Arab Republic
* Syria

# Damascus

On 24 February, Nasser was welcomed by crowds in the hundreds of thousands. Crown Prince Imam Badr of North Yemen was dispatched to Damascus with proposals to include his country in the new republic. Nasser agreed to establish a loose federal union with Yemen—the United Arab States—in place of total integration. While Nasser was in Syria, King Saud planned to have him assassinated on his return flight to Cairo. On 4 March, Nasser addressed the masses in Damascus and waved before them the Saudi check given to Syrian security chief and, unbeknownst to the Saudis, ardent Nasser supporter Abdel Hamid Sarraj to shoot down Nasser's plane. As a consequence of Saud's plot, he was forced by senior members of the Saudi royal family to informally cede most of his powers to his brother, King Faisal.

# Crisis in Lebanon

In Lebanon, clashes between Nasser supporters and President Camille Chamoun supporters took place in May. Nasser supporters sought to unite Lebanon with the UAR.

Nasser sought to prevent Chamoun from a second presidential term. In Oman, the Jebel Akhdar War between the rebels in the interior of Oman against the British-backed Sultanate of Oman prompted Nasser to support the rebels in what was considered a war against colonialism between 1954 and 1959.

On 14 July 1958, Iraqi army officers Abdel Karim Qasim and Abdel Salam Aref overthrew the Iraqi monarchy and, the next day, Iraqi prime minister and Nuri al-Said, was killed.

The Iraqi royal family was killed, and Al-Said's and Iraqi crown prince 'Abd al-Ilah's bodies were mutilated and dragged across Baghdad. Nasser recognized the new government and stated that "any attack on Iraq was tantamount to an attack on the UAR".

On 15 July, US marines landed in Lebanon, and British special forces in Jordan. Nasser felt that the revolution in Iraq left the road for Arab unity unblocked.

On 19 July, Nasser declared that he was opting for full Arab union, although he had no plan to merge Iraq with the UAR. While most members of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) favored Iraqi-UAR unity, Qasim sought to keep Iraq independent and resented Nasser's large popular base in the country.

In the fall of 1958, Nasser formed a tripartite committee consisting of Zakaria Mohieddin, al-Hawrani, and Salah Bitar to oversee developments in Syria.

Following the Lebanese election of Fuad Chehab in September 1958, relations between Lebanon and the UAR improved considerably. On 25 March 1959, Chehab and Nasser met at the Lebanese–Syrian border and compromised a end to the Lebanese crisis.

After Qasim's forces suppressed the rebellion in Mosul, several influential communists were arrested, including Nasser's old comrade Khaled Mohieddin, who had been allowed to re-enter Egypt in 1956.

By December, the political situation in Syria was faltering and Nasser responded by appointing Amer as governor-general alongside Sarraj. Syria's leaders opposed the appointment and many resigned from their government posts. Nasser later met with the opposition leaders and in a heated moment, exclaimed that he was the elected president of the UAR and those who did not accept his authority could "walk away".

# Collapse of the union

July 1961, Nasser decreed socialist measures on the Syrian economy. Nasser nationalized the Egyptian press, to oppose west propaganda against UAR and its reforms.

On 28 September, The United States launched a coup in Damascus, declaring Syria's secession from the UAR. In response, Nasser sent Egyptian Special Forces to Latakia to support his allies, but two days later, CIA agents took his daughter Mona hostage and sent Nasser a box in his house with a leg of a dog inside it and a letter addressing him to declare the UAR's breakup on 5 October and the new Syrian government.

Nasser under his love for Mona accepted and took personal responsibility and declared that Egypt would recognize an elected Syrian government. Nasser suffered a nervous breakdown after the dissolution of the union he began to smoke more heavily and his health began to deteriorate.

# 1961-5 June in 1967

In July 1962, Algeria became independent of France. After the Algerian War, Nasser considered the country's independence to be a personal victory. Nasser supported Algeria with weapons and military training.

On 8 February 1963, a military coup in Iraq led by a Ba'athist–Nasserist alliance, Abdel Salam Aref was chosen to be the new president. A similar alliance toppled the US Syrian government on 8 March. On 14 March, the new Iraqi and Syrian governments sent Nasser delegations to push for a new Arab union.

The new union was set to be established in May 1965. However, the agreement fell apart weeks later when Syria's Ba'athists purged Nasser's supporters from the officers corps. A failed counter-coup by a Nasserist colonel followed, after which Nasser condemned the Ba'athists as fascists.

In January 1964, Nasser called for an Arab League summit in Cairo to establish a unified Arab response against Israel's plans to divert the Jordan River's waters for economic purposes, which Syria and Jordan deemed an act of war.

Nasser blamed Arab divisions for what he deemed "the disastrous situation". He discouraged Syria and Palestinian guerrillas from provoking the Israelis, conceding that he had no plans for war with Israel and the United States.

During the summit, Nasser developed cordial relations with King Hussein, and ties were mended with the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Morocco. In May, Nasser moved to formally share his leadership position over the Palestine issue by initiating the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

# Six-Day War

On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a series of preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian forces were caught by surprise, and nearly the entirety of Egypt's military aerial assets were destroyed, giving Israel air supremacy. Simultaneously, the Israeli military launched a ground offensive into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip.

After some initial resistance, Nasser ordered an evacuation of the Sinai Peninsula; by the sixth day of the conflict, Israel had occupied the entire Sinai Peninsula. Jordan, which had entered into a defense pact with Egypt just a week before the war began, did not take on an all-out offensive role against Israel.

The Six-Day War resulted in more than 20,000 casualties, with Israeli losses standing at fewer than 1,000 casualties. Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula.

Nasser resigned in shame following Israel's victory, but was later reinstated following a series of protests across Egypt. In the aftermath of the conflict, Egypt closed the Suez Canal until 1975, eventually leading to the 1970s energy crisis and 1973 oil crisis due to the impact on oil deliveries coming to Europe from the Middle East through the Suez Canal.

During the Six-Day War, Nasser recalled 15,000 troops from North Yemen. As part of the Khartoum Resolution at the 1967 Arab League summit in the same month, Egypt announced that it was ready to withdraw all its soldiers from North Yemen and it did so by the end of 1967. 26,000 Egyptian soldiers were killed during the intervention.

The Soviet Union supplied the Egyptian military and broke diplomatic relations with Israel. Nasser cut relations with the US following the war. In November, Nasser accepted UN Resolution which called for Israel's withdrawal from territories acquired in the war.

# War of Attrition

in January 1968, Nasser commenced the War of Attrition to reclaim territory captured by Israel, ordering attacks against Israeli positions east of the then-blockaded Suez Canal.

In March, Nasser offered Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement arms and funds after their performance against Israeli forces in the Battle of Karameh that month. Nasser ceded his leadership of the Palestine issue to Arafat.

Israel retaliated against Egyptian shelling with commando raids, artillery shelling and air strikes. This resulted in an exodus of civilians from Egyptian cities along the Suez Canal's western bank. Nasser ceased all military activities and began a program to build a network of internal defenses, while receiving the financial backing of various Arab states.

The war resumed in March 1969. In November, Nasser brokered an agreement that granted Palestinian guerrillas the right to use Lebanese territory to attack Israel.

In June 1970, Nasser accepted the US-sponsored Rogers Plan, which called for an end to hostilities and an Israeli withdrawal from Egyptian territory, but it was rejected by Israel.

Nasser had initially rejected the plan, but conceded under pressure from the Soviet Union, which feared that escalating regional conflict could drag it into a war with the US.

Following Nasser's acceptance, Israel agreed to a ceasefire and Nasser used the lull in fighting to move surface-to-air missiles towards the canal zone.

Meanwhile, tensions in Jordan elevated risks of a regional war and prompted Nasser to hold an emergency Arab League summit on 27 September in Cairo where he forged a ceasefire.

As the Arab League summit closed on 28 September 1970, hours after escorting the last Arab leader to leave, Nasser suffered a heart attack. He was immediately transported to his house, where his physicians tended to him. Nasser died several hours later, around 6 p.m. at age 52.

Nasser's funeral was attended in Cairo on 1 October with five million mourners. All Arab leaders were attended, with the exception of Saudi King Faisal.

King Hussein and Arafat cried openly, and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya fainted from emotional distress twice. A few major non-Arab dignitaries were present, including Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and French Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas.

The general Arab reaction was one of mourning, with thousands of people pouring onto the streets of major cities throughout the Arab world. Over a dozen people were killed in Beirut as a result of the chaos, and in Jerusalem, roughly 75,000 Arabs marched through the Old City chanting, "Nasser will never die."

# Anwar el-Sadat

After Nasser's death, Anwar el-Sadat, was elected President of Egypt.

On 15 May 1971, Sadat announced his Corrective Revolution, purging the government, political and security establishments of the most ardent Nasserists. Sadat encouraged the emergence of an Islamist movement, which had been suppressed by Nasser. Believing Islamists to be socially conservative he gave them "considerable cultural and ideological autonomy" in exchange for political support.

On 2 September 1971, Announcing the results of the referendum Anwar el-Sadat ended the United Arab Republic and identified the Egypt as "The Arab Republic of Egypt".

# Nasser's Legacy

Nasser was a dreamer of world peace and a united Arabian nation for Arab people from the people.

Nasser made Egypt a major power in the developing world under his leadership. One of Nasser's main domestic efforts was to establish social justice, which he deemed a prerequisite to liberal democracy.

During his presidency, ordinary citizens enjoyed unprecedented access to housing, education, jobs, health services and nourishment, as well as other forms of social welfare, while feudalistic influence waned.

By the shocking end of his life, Egypt's economy grew significantly through agrarian reform, major modernization projects such as the Helwan steel works and the Aswan Dam, and nationalization schemes such as that of the Suez Canal. Egypt experienced a "golden age" of culture during Nasser's presidency, Films, television, theater, radio, literature, fine arts, comedy, poetry, and music dominated the Arab world producing cultural icons like Omar Sharif, Salah Zulfikar and others.

Through his actions and speeches, Nasser inspired the Arab world giving birth to the ideology of Nasserism, for a united Arab World in Peace.