The United Arab Republic

33.5.4: The United Arab Republic

In 1958, Egypt joined with the Republic of Syria to form a state called the United Arab Republic.

Learning Objective

Assess the reasoning for the formation of the United Arab Republic

Key Points

  • Several Arab nations envisioned a united Arab nation called the pan-Arab state, and in the late 1950s, just a few years after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, Egypt and Syria began talks to unite into a single sovereign nation.
  • One of the major motivations for the merger was to protect both nations from a communist takeover.
  • Nasser’s terms for unification were seen as unfair to the Syrians, but they felt they had no choice and decided in 1958 to merge with Egypt to become the United Arab Republic.
  • Instead of federation of two Arab peoples, as many Syrians had imagined, the UAR turned into a state completely dominated by Egyptians.
  • Nasser quickly reduced Syrian political representation in the government, cracked down on communists, and consolidated his power over the Republic.
  • Soon, Syrian business and army circles became disaffected with Nasser, which resulted in the Syrian coup of September 28, 1961, and the end of the UAR.

Key Terms

Pan-Arabism
An ideology espousing the unification of the countries of North Africa and West Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, referred to as the Arab world. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. Its popularity was at its height during the 1950s and 1960s. Advocates of pan-Arabism have often espoused socialist principles and strongly opposed Western political involvement in the Arab world. It also sought to empower Arab states from outside forces by forming alliances and to a lesser extent, economic cooperation.
Syrian Crisis of 1957
A period of severe diplomatic confrontations during the Cold War that involved Syria and the Soviet Union on one hand and the United States and its allies, including Turkey and the Baghdad Pact, on the other. The tensions began on August 18 when the Syrian government presided by Shukri al-Quwatli made a series of provocative institutional changes, such as the appointment of Col. Afif al-Bizri as chief-of-staff of the Syrian Army, alleged by Western governments to be a Soviet sympathizer.
Afif al-Bizri
A Syrian career military officer who served as the chief of staff of the Syrian Army between 1957–1959. He was known for his communist sympathies and for spearheading the union movement between Syria and Egypt in 1958.

The United Arab Republic (UAR) was a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union after its 1961 coup d’état. Egypt was known officially as the “United Arab Republic” until 1971. The president was Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was a member of the United Arab States, a loose confederation with North Yemen which in 1961 dissolved along with the Republic.

Establishment of the UAR

Established on February 1, 1958, as a first step towards a larger pan-Arab state, the UAR was created when a group of political and military leaders in Syria proposed a merger of the two states to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Pan-Arabism was very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular hero-figure throughout the Arab world following the Suez War of 1956. There was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nasser’s Egypt. The Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party was the leading advocate of such a union.

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 Khaled al-Azem, 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. However, Nasser was “more afraid of a Communist takeover” and agreed on a total merger.

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. They believed that Nasser’s terms were unfair, but given the intense pressure that their government was under, they believed they had no other choice.

Egyptian and Syrian leaders signed the protocols, although Azem did so reluctantly. Nasser became the republic’s president and soon carried out a crackdown against the Syrian Communists and opponents of the union, which included dismissing Bizri and Azem from their posts.

Photo of Nasser shaking hands with al-Bizri surrounded by a Syrian delegation.

Nasser with Syrian Delegation: Nasser shaking hands with al-Bizri. Afif al-Bizri, the Syrian army’s chief of staff, spearheaded the union with Egypt.

Nasser Consolidates Power

Advocates of the union believed Nasser would use the Ba’ath Party to rule Syria. Unfortunately for the Ba’athists, it was never Nasser’s intention to share an equal measure of power. Instead, heestablished a new provisional constitution proclaiming a 600-member National Assembly with 400 members from Egypt and 200 from Syria, as well as the disbanding of all political parties including the Ba’ath. Nasser gave each of the provinces two vice presidents, assigning Boghdadi and Abdel Hakim Amer to Egypt and Sabri al-Assali and Akram El-Hourani—a leader of the Ba’ath—to Syria. The new constitution of 1958 was adopted.

Though Nasser allowed former Ba’ath Party members to hold prominent political positions, they never reached positions as high ias did the Egyptian officials. During the winter and the spring of 1959–60, Nasser slowly squeezed prominent Syrians out of positions of influence.

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.

Instead of 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 for all political parties in Syria to be dismantled. In the process, the strongly centralized Egyptian state imposed Nasser’s socialistic political and economical system on weaker Syria, creating backlash from the Syrian business and army circles. This resulted in the Syrian coup of September 28, 1961, and the subsequent end of the UAR.

Attributions