Abilene Reporter – News (Abilene, Texas)
Fri, Oct 13, 1961 – Page 62
Egyptian Radio Brushes Off Syrian Plan for Arabs
Cairo (AP)
The new Syrian regime’s proposal for a voluntary union of Arab nations drew a prompt brushoff from the Egyptian radio.
“Observers describe it as similar to other federations sponsored by imperialism such as Hashemite Federation. The Fertile Crescent and Greater Syria Project”. Egypt’s voice of the Arabs said.
The Hashemite Federation of Jordan and Iraq ended with the 1958 assassination of Iraq’s King Faisal by revolutionaries. The long-discussed Fertile Crescent would reunite the two nations and Syria.
In an obvious move to counter President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s ambitious to unite the Arab world under the Egyptian leadership. Syrian Premier Mamoun Kuzbari proposed that all Arab states unite in a voluntary Pan-Arab union on a constitutional, decentralized basis.
Kuzbari said the union would be known as the United Arab States as distinct from the United Arab Republic from which Syria split last month.