Arab Federation

📅 آخر تحديث: ٢٣ يوليو ٢٠٢٦
✍️ نُشر في: ٢٣ يوليو ٢٠٢٦
📷 يحتوي على 4 صور
الموسوعة الحرة

The Hashemite Arab Federation was a short-lived confederation that lasted from 14 February to 2 August 1958, between the Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan. Although the name implies a federal structure, it was de facto a confederation.

The Federation was formed on 14 February 1958, when King Faisal II of Iraq and his cousin, King Hussein of Jordan, sought to unite their two Hashemite kingdoms as a response to the formation of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria. The union lasted only six months. Faisal II was deposed by a military coup on 14 July, and the new Iraqi government officially dissolved the Federation on 2 August 1958.

Background

Talks between King Hussein and King Faisal on the Arab Federation, early 1958.
King Faisal with his cousin King Hussein.

كانت القومية العربية والقومية القومية العربية حركتين رئيسيتين في الشرق الأوسط بعد تفكك الإمبراطورية العثمانية بين عامي 1919 و1925. لاقت القومية العربية رواجًا كبيرًا بين المثقفين والعسكريين. وكثيرًا ما دعا القوميون العرب إلى اتحاد عربي يضم جميع العرب في دولة واحدة، على غرار التصورات الرومانسية للإمبراطورية العثمانية والخلافات القديمة. إلا أنه لم يكن واضحًا من سيقود هذه الدولة المقترحة، ونشأت انقسامات حادة بين المتنافسين على الزعامة. فقد نصّبت السلالة الهاشمية نفسها قادةً حقيقيين للعالم العربي، لكن القوميين العرب الآخرين اعتبروها متساهلة للغاية مع المصالح الغربية، ووصلت إلى السلطة بموافقة ودعم المملكة المتحدة . وظلت كل من الأردن والعراق على علاقات ودية إلى حد كبير مع الكتلة الغربية . وفي العراق، تعامل الأكراد، وهم ليسوا عربًا، والمسلمين الشيعة مع القومية العربية بعين الريبة، إذ رأوا فيها ذريعةً من الأقلية السنية العربية للارتباط بسكان سنيين منتشرين في مناطق نائية. [ 1 ] كان جمال عبد الناصر ، رئيس مصر ، الدولة العربية الأكثر اكتظاظًا بالسكان، أبرز منافسي الهاشميين على الزعامة في خمسينيات القرن العشرين . وقد استبدل ناصر، بدعم من تيار الضباط الأحرار ، النظام الملكي القديم في مصر بنظام جمهوري علماني ذي نزعة اشتراكية عربية ، ولم يكن لنهجه القومي أي تسامح مع الأنظمة الملكية. في المقابل، حكم آل سعود المملكة العربية السعودية بحماسة دينية وهابية ، وكانت علاقاتهم متوترة مع الهاشميين. كل هذا تزامن مع الحرب الباردة في تلك الحقبة ، حيث لجأت الحكومات إلى الكتلة الغربية أو الكتلة الشرقية أو كليهما طلبًا للدعم. ويُطلق على الصراع الناتج عن تداخل القومية العربية مع هذه الأحداث أحيانًا اسم الحرب الباردة العربية .

There were earlier efforts to unite Jordan and Iraq in the name of Arab unity, but they had come to nothing. In particular, from an Iraqi perspective, Jordan had little to offer economically or strategically and numerous liabilities.[2] The liabilities included Jordanian King Abdullah's moderation on the Arab–Israeli conflict, the large number of Palestinians in Jordan, a lack of oil or other valuable resources in Jordan, and the unstable relationship between Abdullah and his nephew, the Iraqi regent 'Abd al-Ilah. Regardless of the issues, the two countries attempted unification in 1946 and 1947.[2] The second time was in 1951 and 1952. King Abdullah was assassinated in 1951 and one of the succession options explored was merging Jordan into Iraq, giving a combined throne to Faisal II. Eventually, Abdullah was succeeded by his son Talal instead as King of Jordan, shortly followed by Hussein in 1952.

In 1955, Iraq entered the short-lived Baghdad Pact at the urging of the United Kingdom and the United States. The pact sought to block the Soviet Union from southward expansion and to prevent it from getting access to the petroleum resources of the Middle East. It was part of the containment policy. It aligned Iraq with other Western-friendly powers including Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran. While Prime Minister Nuri al-Said saw the treaty as a "guarantee" to the security of the Iraqi state, his government, and the Hashemite monarchy, Nasser openly and loudly criticized the treaty as a capitulation to imperialist traitors.

History

Union

The third attempt at a formal alliance between Iraq and Jordan came in 1958. In early 1958, Nasser burnished his pan-Arabist credentials by convincing Syria and Egypt to unite as one country: the United Arab Republic (UAR). He portrayed it as the first step among many, openly advocating for other countries to join the UAR, a direct threat to both Hashemite regimes which bordered Syria. To counter Nasser's pan-Arabism, al-Said approached the Hashemite government of Jordan to discuss the formation of a similar union to appease Arab nationalists within Iraq. Officially formed on 14 February 1958, the Arab Union or Arab Federation united foreign policy and defense of each country but left the vast majority of other domestic programs under national jurisdiction. According to the 7th article of the Federation convention, the Arab revolt flag came to be the official flag of the Union.[3][4] Iraq and Jordan were the first members, but they hoped for Kuwait to join.

Nuri al-Said resigned as Prime Minister of Iraq and became the Premier of the Arab Union. He neglected to see the growing opposition in the Sunni officer corps against the regime, however.[1]

Iraqi military coup

Mutilated corpse of King Faisal's cousin 'Abd al-Ilah hanging from a balcony.
Crowd of men and soldiers in downtown Amman, Jordan, watching a news report about the deposition of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, marking the end of the Arab Federation, 14 July 1958.

Tension between the UAR and the Arab Federation worsened. During the summer of 1958, UAR troop movements to the Syrian border instigated the Arab Federation to mobilize troops to counter this move. Within Iraq, a group called the Free Officers plotted against the monarchy. They were inspired both by Iraq's turbulent history of coups and counter-coups in the past decades as well as Nasser's successful overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952, although they were not direct agents of Nasser. In July 1958, troops led by Abd al-Karim Qasim were transiting through Baghdad on their way to the Jordanian-Syrian border. Qasim took the opportunity, with his troops having a legitimate excuse to be in Baghdad, to overthrow the government there in the 14 July Revolution. With the fall and resulting deaths of al-Said, King Faisal II, and the rest of the Iraqi royal family, both the Hashemite regime fell and with it the short-lived Arab Federation.[1]

The deposition of the Hashemites in Iraq had immediate ramifications on the Hashemites in Jordan. Not only were King Hussein's ruling cousins in Iraq executed, but so was the Jordanian Prime Minister Ibrahim Hashem who was visiting at the time.[5] After the revolutionaries in Iraq declared a republic, King Hussein of Jordan requested immediate British and American aid. The British sent 4,000 soldiers to Jordan, while the US stationed troops in Beirut, Lebanon. The British forces remained until November 2, 1958, when the US pledged to "support the throne [of the Hashemites in Jordan]" and "provide the country with $40 to $50 million as an annual subsidy, replacing the British subsidy".[5]

Aftermath

The revolution and downfall of the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq would not be the end of relations between Iraq and Jordan. The Iraqi coup plotters who had ordered the execution of the Hashemites were themselves later overthrown and killed in the 1960s, perhaps easing the path to reconciliation. In 1975, Jordan turned away from their traditional economic relationship with Syria and instead looked to Iraq. Iraq offered Jordan a strong economy, oil money, a large market and strategic depth. With Iraq's financial aid, Jordan made some economic gains. By 1990 Iraq was "Jordan's largest market, it was repaying trade credit debts in oil, and it held out the hope of lucrative reconstruction contracts after the Iran–Iraq War."[6][7]

References

  1. 123Tripp, Charles (2007). A History of Iraq (Third ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 135–145. ISBN 978-0-521-87823-4.
  2. 12Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce (1990). "Jordan and Iraq: Efforts at Intra-Hashimite Unity". Middle Eastern Studies. 26 (1). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Taylor & Francis: 65–75. doi:10.1080/00263209008700805. ISSN 0026-3206. JSTOR 4283349.
  3. ↑"Al Moqatel - ثورة عام 1958، في العراق"[Al Moqatel - 1958 revolution, in Iraq]. www.moqatel.com (in Arabic). Archived from the original on May 3, 2017.
  4. ↑ "الاتحاد العربي الهاشمي بين العراق والاردن 14 فبراير 1958، جريدة الحقيقة في 26 نوفمبر 2016" [ الاتحاد العربي الهاشمي بين العراق والأردن 14 فبراير 1958، صحيفة الحقيقة 26 نوفمبر 2016 ] . الحقيقة نيوز.كوم (باللغة العربية). مؤرشفة من الأصلي في 7 مارس 2020 . تم الاسترجاع بتاريخ 25-12-2023 .
  5. 1 2 مسعد، جوزيف أندوني (2001). الآثار الاستعمارية: تشكيل الهوية الوطنية في الأردن . مطبعة جامعة كولومبيا. ص 212. ISBN  978-0-231-12323-5.
  6. ↑ براند، لوري أ. (1994). "الاقتصاد والتحالفات المتغيرة: علاقات الأردن مع سوريا والعراق، 1975-1981" . المجلة الدولية لدراسات الشرق الأوسط . 26 (3). جامعة ميشيغان، آن أربور: مطبعة جامعة كامبريدج: 393-413 . doi : 10.1017/S0020743800060700 . ISSN 0020-7438 . JSTOR 163695 .  
  7. ↑ رايان، كورتيس (2000). "بين العراق ومكان صعب: العلاقات الأردنية العراقية" . تقرير الشرق الأوسط (215). جامعة ميشيغان، آن أربور: مشروع أبحاث ومعلومات الشرق الأوسط: 40-42 . doi : 10.2307/1520157 . ISSN 0899-2851 . JSTOR 1520157 .  

32°30′00″ شمالاً 39°00′00″ شرقاً / 32.5000° شمالاً 39.0000° شرقاً / 32.5000; 39.0000