United Political Leadership
(Arif is said to have recommended Khrushchev to convert to Islam at that time.)
A United Political Leadership ( Arabic قيادة سياسية موحدة, DMG qiyāda siyāsiyya muwaḥḥada , also United Political Command ) was agreed in 1964 between the presidents of Egypt and Iraq ( Gamal Abdel Nasser and Abd as-Sallam Arif ) and between the presidents of Egypt and Northern Yemen (Nasser and Abdallah as-Sallal ). It should act as a joint transitional government in order to prepare the gradual amalgamation of Egypt and Iraq or Egypt and North Yemen into a unitary state or the annexation of Iraq and Yemen to the United Arab Republic (Egypt).
Both projects (independent of each other) failed at the latest in 1966 and 1967, but until 1979 there were similar leadership alliances between Egypt, Syria , Jordan , Iraq , Libya and Sudan .
United Arab Republic (1964–1966): Egypt and Iraq
In the summer of 1963, the Egyptian-Iraqi-Syrian Federation, planned as a new edition of the United Arab Republic, failed and the alliance between the Nasserists and Baathists broke. After the fall of the Iraqi Ba'ath government in the military coup of November 18, 1963 and the termination of the Syrian-Iraqi military alliance by the still Ba'athist Syria, an Egyptian-Iraqi rapprochement occurred in early 1964. Nasserist officers had played a key role in the overthrow of the Ba'ath government and were promoted to the new Revolutionary Council. A government composed of nationalists, unionists, ex-Baathists and Nasserists was formed.
On May 26, 1964, Nasser and Abd as-Sallam Arif agreed to form a joint presidential council and on October 16, 1964 to form a United Political Leadership . This United Leadership, formed on December 20, 1964, was to include Nasser and Arif as well as the Prime Ministers of Egypt and Iraq and the respective Ministers for Economic Affairs, Finance and Planning, a total of 25 members (13 Egyptians, 12 Iraqis). As a joint supreme body of power for both states, the united leadership should prepare the economic, political and military unification of Egypt and Iraq within two years. A common constitution was to be drawn up and adopted by referendum, and by 1966 Egypt and Iraq were to form a new United Arab Republic .
In preparation for this, a ministry responsible for the Union was created in Iraq under Abd ar-Razzaq Muhyi ad-Din . Abd ar-Razzaq Muhyi ad-Din also became Secretary General of the United Political Leadership . Based on the Egyptian model, an Arab Socialist Union (ASU) was founded in Iraq in July 1964 as the ruling unity party and the only authorized political organization. On September 15, 1964, the Egyptian and Iraqi ASU were united, and on September 24, 1964 the diplomatic services of Egypt and Iraq were also united (on May 12, 1965, Iraq and Egypt broke off diplomatic relations with the FRG). On June 2, 1965, Iraq adopted the Egyptian heraldic eagle (but retained three stars instead of two) and the Egyptian national anthem as new state symbols. In addition, Arif Nasser's course of state nationalizations and social reforms followed, but in July 1965, the Nasserist and pro-Nasserist ministers resigned from Tahir Yahya's government . Thereupon President Arif even appointed Arif Abd ar-Razzaq , a Nasserist, as Iraqi Prime Minister.
After barely a week in office, ar-Razzaq launched a coup in September 1965 because he was dissatisfied with the unsuccessful course of the planned unification. His overthrow strengthened the anti-racist and Baathist military in Iraq and with Arif's death in April 1966 the project had failed, even if ar-Razzaq attempted another coup against Arif's brother or successor Abd ar-Rahman Arif in July 1966 , and this Arif im August 1966 appointed a Nasser-friendly prime minister, Nadschi Talib . In its cabinet, the Union Ministry was abolished or transformed into a Ministry for general Arab unity. In October 1966, the Iraqi ASU was placed directly under the Iraqi government. Nevertheless, the meetings of the United Political Leadership continued until November 1966, and from May 1967 to April 1968 Abd ar-Razzaq Muhyi ad-Din was again Union Minister. The ASU preparatory committees were not finally dissolved until the Ba'ath Party came to power again in July 1968.
Iraq's Prime Minister Bazzaz (left) and Nasser were still satisfied with the state of the unification process in February 1966
In May 1966, the planned union with Iraq was praised on this Egyptian stamp
Abd ar-Razzaq Muhyi ad-Din was Secretary General of the United Leadership and Minister of the Union of Iraq until August 1966
United Arab Republic (1964–1967): Egypt and North Yemen
Between 1958 and 1961 the Kingdom of Yemen and the United Arab Republic formed a loose federation, the United Arab States .
After the overthrow of the king (1962), the Yemeni Arab Republic (JAR) founded by as-Sallal was promised to join the Egyptian-Iraqi-Syrian Federation in 1963, but was postponed because of the civil war between Republicans and Royalists. As-Sallal's republican government, however, was dependent on Egyptian military and economic aid, and North Yemen was in fact already under Egyptian control. At the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964, an Arab Socialist Union was initially founded in North Yemen as a mass base for the regime, but then renamed or restructured several times and remained largely ineffective.
On the occasion of Nasser's visit to the JAR from April 23 to 28, 1964, as-Sallal expressed the JAR's wish to join the VAR. But Nasser said that unification could only be discussed when there was peace in the country and the Egyptian soldiers had withdrawn. Nevertheless, during a return visit by al-Sallal to Egypt on July 13, 1964, a united political leadership was agreed between Egypt and North Yemen as a preliminary stage to a future unification of the two states. Independently of the Egyptian-Iraqi unification plans, a supreme joint council should coordinate foreign, defense, economic, social, cultural and information policy until the preparations for unification of Egypt and Yemen were completed. However, Egypt was unable to enforce the necessary peace through troops or through negotiations (1965). In fact, Nasser had already withdrawn from unification during the (unsuccessful) peace negotiations in 1965, and in 1966 Sallal had introduced a national coat of arms different from the Egyptian eagle. With the withdrawal of the Egyptians and the subsequent fall of al-Sallal, the unified project finally failed at the end of 1967.
Although the Egyptian-Yemeni unity project was independent of the Egyptian-Iraqi unity project, Iraq was at least indirectly involved in the Yemeni civil war. In December 1964, Nasser and Arif had openly sided with the Republican cause in Yemen in a joint declaration, also in February 1966, and in September 1966 the Iraqi Defense Minister pledged military support to the Egyptian troops in Yemen. Instead, from September 1967 to January 1968, only three Iraqis were deployed as part of an Iraqi-Moroccan-Sudanese committee to oversee the unbundling between withdrawing Egyptian and Saudi-backed royalist units.
Nasser was behind as-Sallal's Republicans from the start, but in April 1964 he did not want a hasty unification
In July 1964 Nasser and Sallal agreed a gradual integration of their states up to full union
Republican soldiers were trained by Egyptian instructors at the Sanaa Military Academy until 1967
Syria and Jordan (1975)
After the defeat of Egypt and Syria in the October War and the failure of the Federation of Arab Republics with Libya in 1973, the Egyptian-Israeli troop unbundling agreements of 1974 and 1975 marked the de facto end of the Egyptian-Syrian military alliance. Syria therefore sought a compromise with Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and with less success also with Iraq and the Palestinians. Jordan, in turn, found itself isolated from the US after an arms deal stopped in Congress.
On June 12, 1975, several political and economic cooperation agreements were concluded between the Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad and the Jordanian King Hussein I and a joint Supreme Political Command Council was agreed to implement them. A Joint Supreme Committee should promote joint military command, political coordination and economic integration. These cooperation agreements were supplemented in 1976 by the beginning of the integration of diplomatic missions abroad.
At the meeting in Damascus on November 22, 1976, Assad and Hussein decided to accelerate coordination and integration and at a further meeting on December 6, both heads of state approved the integration measures previously decided by the joint committee, but only two weeks later Assad agreed with the Egyptian president instead Sadat a Joint Political Command . With Syria turning to Egypt (1976–1977), Iraq (1978–1979) and Libya (1980–1981), the Syrian-Jordanian integration project became obsolete. In 1980, Syrian and Jordanian-Iraqi troops faced each other at the border.
Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Syria (1969–1970 and 1976–1977)
After the coup, Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and the coup Jafar at-Numairis in Sudan was in late 1969 between Egypt, Libya and Sudan Revolutionary Arab Front and later a unified political command has been agreed, in an Arab Federation republics should lead . Syria also planned to join this federation at the end of 1970.
However, after Nasser's sudden death (September 1970), the Hafiz al-Assad coup (November 1970) and a pro-communist coup attempt in Sudan (July 1971), the situation changed. The federation was formed in 1971 by Egypt, Libya and Syria and came into force on January 1, 1972, with Sudan joining at a later date.
Within the federation, Egypt and Libya agreed a union in 1972 that was to be prepared by a united political leadership . This united leadership should work out the foundations of the union, joint committees should then work out a constitution, a joint military leadership and the economic, financial and legal association. The project failed as early as 1973. Also within the Federation, Syria and Egypt agreed a union in 1976, which in turn was to be prepared by a United Political Leadership . Sudan also intended again in 1977 to join the United Leadership or the Egyptian-Syrian Union. Even Somalia expressed a desire to join.
After the Egyptian President Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, Syria and Libya finally dissolved the federation in November 1977.
Syria and Iraq (1979)
The Syrian-Egyptian break and the ineffectiveness of the front of steadfastness against a separate Egyptian-Israeli peace, but also the Israeli invasion of Lebanon brought the Baath regimes of Syria and Iraq, which had been at war for decades, closer together again. A charter of joint national action adopted at the end of 1978 was even followed in 1979 by the announcement of a Syrian-Iraqi union. The gradual integration of the two Ba'athist states was initially intended to be prepared by a Joint High Political Committee , and from June 1979, finally, a Joint Political Leadership (consisting of Iraq's President al-Bakr, Syria's President Assad and Iraq's Vice-President Saddam Hussein). After al-Bakr was replaced by Saddam Hussein, the project failed as early as July 1979 due to renewed Syrian-Iraqi differences.
Libya, Sudan and Chad (1989–1990)
Syria and Libya on the one hand and Egypt and Sudan on the other hand pursued unification projects that were independent of one another. Only after a military overthrow in Sudan in 1989 did Libya and Sudan again agree on a United Political Leadership to coordinate foreign, economic and defense policy, this time together with Chad. But as early as 1990, Libya and Sudan jointly overthrew the government in Chad and agreed a unitary Libyan-Sudanese state, which finally failed in 1994.
See also
literature
- Lothar Rathmann (ed.): History of the Arabs - From the beginnings to the present , volumes 6 and 7th Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1983
- Günther Barthel (ed.): The Arab countries - an economic geographic representation . Haack Gotha 1987
- Günter Kettermann: Atlas for the history of Islam , pages 163-166 (Pan-Arabism: Pacts and mergers). Darmstadt 2001
- Johannes Berger, Friedemann Büttner and Bertold Spuler: Middle East PLOETZ - history of the Arab-Islamic world to look up . Freiburg / Würzburg 1987
- Marion and Peter Sluglett: Iraq since 1958 - From Revolution to Dictatorship . Suhrkamp Frankfurt 1991
- Prof. Dr. Gustav Fochler-Hauke (Ed.): Fischer Weltalmanach '66. Frankfurt 1965
- Dr. Werner Rosenberg : Die Welt - data, facts, information from 1964 . Dietz Verlag Berlin 1965
- Dr. Werner Rosenberg : Die Welt - data, facts, information from 1965 . Dietz Verlag Berlin 1966
- Dr. Werner Rosenberg : Die Welt - data, facts, information from 1966 . Dietz Verlag Berlin 1967
- Prof. Dr. Walter Markov , Prof. Dr. Alfred Anderle , Prof. Dr. Ernst Wurche: Small Encyclopedia World History , Volume 1 and 2. Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1979
- Robin Leonard Bidwell : Dictionary of Modern Arab History , 426--42. London / New York 1998
Individual evidence
- ^ Bidwell, p. 51
- ^ The News and Courier of June 6, 1965: Despite Alliance, Iraq, UAR Never May Be United
- ↑ Toledo Blade, December 21, 1964: Unified Political Command Formed for UAR, Iraq
- ↑ The Sydney Morning Herals, January 27, 1965: Mirage In The Middle East
- ^ Spokane Daily Chronicle of August 2, 1972: Egypt, Libya Plan to Join as One State
- ^ The Times of February 25, 1977: Sudan Expetected to Join Egypt, Syria in Command
- ^ The Bryan Times of March 22, 1977: Red Sea Pact