The United Arab States (UAS, ar, الدول العربية المتحدة) was a short-lived

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

of the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

(

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and Syria) and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen) from 1958 to 1961. The

was a sovereign state formed by the union of Egypt and Syria in 1958. The same year, the

Kingdom of Yemen The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen ( ar, المملكة المتوكلية اليمنية '), also known as the Kingdom of Yemen or simply as Yemen, or, retrospectively, as North Yemen, was a state that existed between 1918 and 1962 in the nor ...

(North Yemen), which had already signed a defense pact with Egypt, joined with the new state in 1958 in a loose confederation called the United Arab States. One reason for this decision was the fact that, for a long time, Yemen had felt threatened by its considerably larger and more powerful northern neighbour,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

(the two had fought a war in 1934, and still shared a partially undemarcated border), and thus saw the confederation as a source of security. However, unlike the member countries of the United Arab Republic, North Yemen remained an independent sovereign state. It maintained its UN membership and separate embassies throughout the whole period of confederation. Neither the union nor the confederation fulfilled their role as vehicles of pan-Arabism or

Arab nationalism Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language a ...

, as they were dissolved in 1961.

References

External links

The Charter of the United Arab States.
in ''Basic Documents of the Arab Unifications.'' p. 21. Arab nationalism in Egypt Arab nationalism in Syria Arab nationalism in Yemen Former Arab states Pan-Arabism States and territories established in 1958 States and territories disestablished in 1961 United Arab Republic {{Arab nationalism

See also

References

External links