 | This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it . Please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the Find link tool for suggestions. (May 2024) |
The state union of Libya with Syria proposed by Muammar al-Gaddafi in September 1980 was one of the numerous Libyan-Arab unification projects and part of the pan-Arab unity quest. The proposed union was considered a failure as early as December 1980, but at the latest in August 1981. [1] [2]
As early as April 1971, Libya and Syria had formed a Federation of Arab Republics with Egypt, but just like the United Political Leadership of Egypt and Syria agreed in 1976, the Egyptian-Libyan-Syrian Federation also finally broke apart with the trip to Jerusalem by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in November 1977. Gaddafi and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad then dismissed the Presidential Council of the Federation by decree on 5 December 1977, and initially moved the headquarters of the Federation to Tripoli. In December 1977, Gaddafi invited Arab heads of state there to form a front of steadfastness against the Egyptian-Israeli separate peace agreement of Camp David concluded in 1978. [3] Another aspect of this front formation orchestrated by Libya was Gaddafi's efforts to obtain military protection against an Egyptian invasion. The brief Egyptian-Libyan border war of July 1977 had already revealed the hopeless inferiority of the small Libyan army to the ten times larger Egyptian force; in 1980, new fighting threatened on the Libyan-Egyptian border. [1] In addition, the US and France had tried to overthrow the Libyan regime in 1980. Gaddafi hoped that the other "steadfast countries" would send troops to protect his regime if necessary and thus cover Libya's back during his intervention in the Chadian civil war. [4]
After the loss of its military ally Egypt, Syria initially sought a replacement in Iraq, which had concluded a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union. Under pressure from the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in April 1978, a temporary Syrian-Iraqi reconciliation was achieved on October 26, 1978, and a unification of the two Baathist states was even agreed. However, after Saddam Hussein came to power, Iraq terminated the union in July 1979. An initial uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iran-Iraq War, which had been looming since July 1980, further worsened the military situation in isolated Syria. In a hasty bid to support Iran, Syria had "lent" numerous Syrian fighter planes to the Iranian Air Force (which was cut off from supplies and spare parts from the USA), and over 1,000 Syrian tanks were threateningly positioned on the borders with Iraq and Jordan. The Soviet Union then suspended the delivery of further military equipment until Syria's debts were paid. Fearing a two-front war, Syria turned its attention back to Libya. [5] [6]
 |  |
On September 1, 1980, on the 11th anniversary of the Libyan revolution, Gaddafi proposed to Assad that Libya and Syria should merge into a socialist unitary state. Assad agreed to the proposal, and on September 10, a 13-point agreement was signed, which provided for an "organic union" [7] or a complete merger of the two states. [5] [2] Within just one month, the leadership of Libya and Syria was to meet again to present a concrete plan and take the first steps. Within just one year, a new government and a "Revolutionary Congress" were to be formed and the unification process completed. [1] [2] [7]
The Libyan-Syrian unified state was also to be open to all other "progressive" states that were prepared to confront Israel and the regimes allied with the US, and thus become the core of a pan-Arab union . [9] Gaddafi promised that he himself would fight as a Fida'i (partisan) in Galilee (Palestine) if the union failed.
The Libyan revolutionary leader immediately paid off Syria's debts to the Soviet Union amounting to one billion US dollars and provided Syria with another 800 million. The Soviet Union's role behind this diplomacy remained unclear, but after the Union's announcement, the Soviet Union signed a friendship treaty with Syria in October 1980.
Instead of meeting again after a month, the Libyan and Syrian leadership did not meet again until December. At a Libyan-Syrian summit meeting from 15 to 17 December 1980 in Benghazi, cuts were made to the timetable for unification, which effectively meant that the project failed. [10] [11] Gaddafi and Assad only decided to set up a supreme committee or commission that would first develop a common constitutional framework.
Questions such as a common head of state, a common capital and the form of a common government or common state bodies remained unanswered. In March 1981, Assad declared that the two governments were still looking for the right formula to achieve the greatest possible popular approval for the unification project. While Gaddafi pushed for a full union, Assad only wanted a loose federation. The differences between Syria and Libya made a unification fundamentally difficult. In contrast to 1971, the establishment of the Libyan Jamahiriya was already well advanced in 1981. Despite a common "socialist orientation", this form of government was hardly compatible with the military-bureaucratic civil service state of Syria, and Assad was not prepared to dissolve the Syrian Baath Party or the National Progressive Front . By the end of the agreed one-year period, no progress had been made. During a visit to Damascus in August 1981, Gaddafi therefore blamed bureaucrats, regionalists and splitters for the failure of the unification.
Criticism came primarily from Libya and Syria's previous federation partners Egypt and Iraq. While Sadat derided the planned union as a "union of children", after previously calling Gaddafi and Assad "dwarfs", Iraq's Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz described the union as "a unity in which appearance outweighs reality". Aziz questioned the usefulness of a Libyan-Syrian union in particular and pointed out in 1981 that the planned union had little military or geostrategic value. As the wars of 1967 and 1973 had taught, in the event of a war against Israel, weak Syria would need a strong hinterland, which of course could only be Iraq, not the far-away and militarily weaker Libya.
" The area of Libya plays no role in the Arab-Zionist conflict, only if Libya is used as a strategic depth for Egypt. But Egypt, mind you, has a large land area and does not need this depth in its fight against the Zionist enemy. This is very different from Syrian-Iraqi relations, for example. Due to the small population and the low level [...] of technological development of Libya, it is hardly in a position to set up a military force that can have a decisive significance [...]. "
– Tariq Aziz : The Iraqi-Iranian Conflict, p. 57 Only Libya's rich financial resources are useful, but Gaddafi hardly uses them. Aziz also recalled Gaddafi's broken promise to
" [...] either to form a unity with Syria [...] or to go to Galilee as a guerrilla [...] Gaddafi said these beautiful words last September. Now we are in February 1981. More than five months have passed since Gaddafi said these beautiful words, but Gaddafi has not yet gone to Galilee. "
– Tariq Aziz : The Iraqi-Iranian Conflict, p. 58
In the face of the confrontation between Libya and the US fleet in the Gulf of Sirte in August 1981, Assad again declared his solidarity with Libya, and Gaddafi was still negotiating the union in Syria, but militarily Libya was just as alone in this conflict and in the civil war in Chad as Syria was in the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights in December 1981 and in the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama and the Lebanon War in 1982 .
Nevertheless, on 3 October 1984, a preparatory committee for the Libyan-Syrian Supreme Political Committee (agreed in December 1980) met for the first time, and on 20 May 1985, the Supreme Political Committee finally met for a (first and last) joint session. Some agreements on economic and cultural cooperation were concluded, and on 7 July 1985, a military cooperation agreement was added. At this time, however, Libya was already part of another union, the Arab-African Federation with Morocco. A renewed Libyan-Syrian alliance in 1986 also ended this federation: after Morocco's King Hassan II received the then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres for (unsuccessful) talks in Morocco on 22 July 1986, Gaddafi and Assad strongly condemned the Moroccan-Israeli meeting during a visit by the Syrian president to Tripoli on 24 August 1986. Hassan then terminated the federation by telegram on 28 August 1986, and Gaddafi reiterated his desire to form a union with Syria on 31 August instead.
Since then, Syria has not participated in any further unification projects. Unlike most other union projects with Libya's neighbouring states, the failure of the Libyan-Syrian project did not lead to a deterioration in relations between Libya and Syria - not even during the Kuwait War in 1990/91, when Syria joined the anti-Iraqi coalition but Libya took a pro-Iraqi stance.
The Arab world, formally the Arab homeland, also known as the Arab nation, the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in Western Asia and Northern Africa. While the majority of people in the Arab world are ethnically Arab, there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Berbers, Kurds, Somalis and Nubians, among other groups. Arabic is used as the lingua franca throughout the Arab world.
The Arab Islamic Republic was a proposed unification of Tunisia and Libya in 1974, agreed upon by Libyan head of state Muammar Gaddafi and Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba. Additional countries—Morocco and Algeria—were later included in the proposal, which was never implemented.
The Federation of Arab Republics was an unsuccessful attempt by Muammar Gaddafi to merge Libya, Egypt and Syria in order to create a unified Arab state. Although approved by a referendum in each country on 1 September 1971, the three countries disagreed on the specific terms of the merger. The federation lasted from 1 January 1972 to 19 November 1977.
The dynamic between the League of Arab States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been ambivalent, owing to the latter's varying bilateral conduct with each country of the former. Iran is located on the easternmost frontier of the Arab League, which consists of 22 Arab countries and spans the bulk of the Middle East and North Africa, of which Iran is also a part. The Arab League's population is dominated by ethnic Arabs, whereas Iran's population is dominated by ethnic Persians; and while both sides have Islam as a common religion, their sects differ, with Sunnis constituting the majority in the Arab League and Shias constituting the majority in Iran. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's Shia theocracy has attempted to assert itself as the legitimate religious and political leadership of all Muslims, contesting a status that has generally been understood as belonging to Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. This animosity, manifested in the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, has greatly exacerbated the Shia–Sunni divide throughout the Muslim world.
The Arab Union is a theoretical political union of the Arab states. The term was first used when the British Empire promised the Arabs a united independent state in return for revolting against the Ottoman Empire, with whom Britain was at war. It never came to fruition following the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Despite this, many in the Arab world have since called for the creation of a pan-Arab state. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser made several unsuccessful attempts to unite Egypt with other Arab countries, and briefly succeeded in forming the United Arab Republic with Syria in 1958, which dissolved in 1971. Similar attempts were made by other Arab leaders, such as Hafez al-Assad, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Faisal I of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Gaafar Nimeiry and Anwar Sadat.
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon lasted from 1976, beginning with the Syrian intervention in the Lebanese Civil War, until April 30, 2005. This period saw significant Syrian military and political influence over Lebanon, impacting its governance, economy, and society. The occupation ended following intense international pressure and the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The legacy of the occupation continues to influence Lebanese-Syrian relations and Lebanon's internal political dynamics.
The Libyan–Sudanese relations refers to the long historical relations between Libya and Sudan, both are Arab countries.
The Egyptian–Libyan War, also known as the Four Day War, was a short border war fought between Libya and Egypt that lasted from 21 to 24 July 1977. The conflict stemmed from a deterioration in relations that had occurred between the two states after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had rebuffed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's entreaties to unify their countries and had pursued a peace settlement with Israel in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Soon thereafter Libya began sponsoring dissidents and assassination plots to undermine Sadat, and Egypt responded in kind to weaken Gaddafi. In early 1976 Gaddafi dispatched troops to the Egyptian frontier where they began clashing with border guards. Sadat responded by moving many troops to the area, while the Egyptian General Staff drew up plans for an invasion to depose Gaddafi.
Iraq–Syria relations are the bilateral/diplomatic relations between the sovereign states of Iraq and Syria. Both countries/nations are neighbours and they share the Iraq–Syria border. Relations are marked by long-shared cultural and political links, as well as former regional rivalry. The two countries took their present form after the Sykes–Picot Agreement to dismember the Ottoman Empire into British and French spheres of influence after World War I.
Egypt–Iraq relations have varied over time, alternating from cooperation to rivalry over time. The modern relationship between Iraq and Egypt soured in 1977 when the two nations broke relations with each other following Egypt's peace accords with Israel. In 1978, Baghdad hosted an Arab League summit that condemned and ostracized Egypt for accepting the Camp David accords. However, Egypt's strong material and diplomatic support for Iraq in its war with Iran led to warmer relations and numerous contacts between senior officials, despite the continued absence of ambassadorial-level representation. Since 1983, Iraq has repeatedly called for the restoration of Egypt's "natural role" among Arab countries. In January 1984, Iraq successfully led Arab efforts within the OIC to restore Egypt's membership.
The Arab Cold War was a political rivalry in the Arab world from the early 1950s to the late 1970s and a part of the wider Cold War. It is generally accepted that the beginning of the Arab Cold War is marked by the Egyptian revolution of 1952, which led to Gamal Abdel Nasser becoming president of Egypt in 1956. Thereafter, newly formed Arab republics, inspired by revolutionary secular nationalism and Nasser's Egypt, engaged in political rivalries with conservative traditionalist Arab monarchies, influenced by Saudi Arabia. The Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the ascension of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as leader of Iran, is widely seen as the end of this period of internal conflicts and rivalry. A new era of Arab-Iranian tensions followed, overshadowing the bitterness of intra-Arab strife.
Syria and Iran are strategic allies. Syria is usually called Iran's "closest ally", notwithstanding the conflict between the Arab nationalism ideology of Syria's secular ruling Ba'ath Party and the Islamic Republic of Iran's pan-Islamist policy. Iran and Syria have had a strategic alliance ever since the Iran–Iraq War, when Syria sided with non-Arab Iran against neighbouring Ba'ath-ruled Iraq. The two countries shared a common animosity towards then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and coordination against the United States and Israel.
The Axis of Resistance is an informal Iranian-led political and military coalition in West Asia and North Africa.
Egypt–Syria relations refers to the bilateral relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Syrian Arab Republic. Egypt has an embassy in Damascus. Syria has an embassy in Cairo. Both countries are members of the Arab League.
Pan-Arabism is a pan-nationalist ideology that espouses the unification of all Arab people in a single nation-state, consisting of all Arab countries of West Asia and North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts the view that the Arabs constitute a single nation. It originated in the late 19th century among the Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire, and its popularity reached its height during the 1950s and 1960s. Advocates of pan-Arabism have often espoused Arab socialist principles and strongly opposed Western political involvement in the Arab world. It also sought to empower Arab states against outside forces by forming alliances and, to a lesser extent, economic co-operation.
Hafez al-Assad served as the President of Syria from 12 March 1971 until his death on 10 June 2000. He had been Prime Minister of Syria, leading a government for two years. He was succeeded by his son, Bashar al-Assad.
A Unified Political Command, also translated as Joint Political Command or Unified Political Leadership, was agreed in 1964 between the presidents of Egypt and Iraq as well as between the presidents of Egypt and North Yemen. Both projects were parallel but not linked with each other. The Unified Political Command was meant as a kind of transitional government which should prepare the gradual merger of Iraq with Egypt and North Yemen with Egypt in a new United Arab Republic.
The timeline of the Gulf War details the dates of the major events of the 1990–1991 war. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and ended with the Liberation of Kuwait by Coalition forces. Iraq subsequently agreed to the United Nations' demands on 28 February 1991. The ground war officially concluded with the signing of the armistice on 11 April 1991. However, the official end to Operation Desert Storm did not occur until sometime between 1996 - 1998. Major events in the aftermath include anti-Saddam Hussein uprisings in Iraq, massacres against the Kurds by the regime, Iraq formally recognizing the sovereignty of Kuwait in 1994, and eventually ending its cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission in 1998.
In March 1972, Ba'athist Iraq proposed to Egypt and Syria a re-establishment of the United Arab Republic, which failed in 1963. The Iraqi proposal was an immediate reaction to Jordan's proposal for a United Arab Kingdom but collided with the already established Federation of Arab Republics and failed because of Iraqi–Syrian differences.