United Arab Command
Encyclopedia
The United Arab Command (UAC) (also Unified Arab Command or Joint Arab Command) was a unified Arab military
command
established by unanimous resolution of the thirteen member states of the Arab League
at the summit
held in Cairo
, Egypt
, on 13 - 16 January 1964.
collective security
initiatives, which began to coalesce from 1960 until the UAC's formal creation in 1964. The Permanent Military Committee (PMC) of the Arab League, composed of representatives from the headquarters of the Arab armies, had been asked on 29 February 1960 by the Council of the Arab League
to prepare a comprehensive plan for all possible contingencies arising from Israeli water diversion initiatives. The PMC's response was that joint military action would require extensive preparation and that the Chief-of-Staffs Committee (the Military Advisory Committee) should be invoked to set up a joint apparatus of approximately 100 officers.
Another pan-Arabist body, the Joint Defence Council
, consisting of Arab foreign and defence ministers and chiefs-of-staff, met in Cairo (10 - 18 June 1961) and proposed the establishment of a Joint Arab Command. The UAR encouraged the delegation of decisive power to the commanding officer of this new command; under the terms of the 1950 Arab Joint Security Pact, such a commanding officer "would be chosen from the member state with the largest troop presence", namely Egypt.
The UAC was proposed by Egyptian president
Gamal Abdel Nasser
(1918 - 1970) in the face of repeated Syria
n accusations of Egyptian reluctance for military confrontation with Israel
, although the more immediate catalyst was Israel's proposed diversion of water from Lake Tiberias
. The creation of the UAC was part of the Arab League's response to Israel's proposal, together with a plan to divert two sources of the River Jordan: the Hasbani River
and the Banias
.
The creation of the UAC was announced by Cairo Radio; no mention of the UAC was made in the official communiqué
from the summit, although the secretary-general of the Arab League himself, Abdel Khalek Hassouna
, had stated that certain adopted resolutions would remain secret.
, king of Jordan, had experience of joint defence arrangements among the Arab states, and was not particularly enthusiastic about the establishment of the UAC. Nonetheless, he gave it his support, and later charged the UAC with command of the military operations of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) as a condition to Jordan's co-operation, lest the PLO draw Jordan into a war with Israel for which it was ill-prepared.
Michael Stewart
, British
foreign minister
(22 January 1965 – 11 August 1966), in a memorandum
to the Defence and Oversea Policy cabinet committee
, wrote that the formation of the UAC and its undertaking of "ostensibly defensive military planning against Israel" constituted a "somewhat more dangerous phase" of the Arab–Israeli conflict
. Certainly, Britain conceded that the UAC had become a "relatively competent and effective body", capable of ordering a retaliatory action against Israel should the Arab water diversion plan come under attack.
Arthur Lourie, Israeli ambassador to Britain, claimed that the establishment of the UAC had raised the tension in the region and had enabled Egypt to gain control over the military forces of its fellow Arab states.
The UAC was to be headed by an Egyptian lieutenant general
, Ali Ali Amer, and with headquarters in Cairo. Notwithstanding the Egyptian bent to the UAC, its cost of creation, GBP
15 million, was mostly contributed by the oil-rich member states, with Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait
topping the list.
Following the 1966 Samu Incident
, Egypt and Jordan agreed to revitalise the UAC in May 1967, appointing as its new commander Abdul Munim Riad
, chief of staff of the Egyptian military
.
ing of the Arab armies, in respect of strength and organisation, and, at the request of Hussein, king of Jordan, the command of the PLO's military operations.
However, meaningful action by the UAC against Israel was given two pre-conditions by the commander-in-chief, Ali Ali Amer, at the second Arab League summit
, held in Alexandria
, Egypt, in September 1964. Firstly, the confrontation states - Lebanon
, Jordan
and Syria - must allow the UAC to station foreign Arab troops on their soil at the UAC's discretion. Secondly, there must be co-ordination and standardisation of strategy, tactics, organisation and weaponry. While the second pre-condition was agreed to in principle, the three confrontation states baulked at allowing Egyptian encroachment on their territory.
in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank
in an operation code-named Shredder. Casualties among the Jordanian military
numbered 16, with 3 civilians and 1 Israeli. In the aftermath to the incident, the UAC was noticeable for its inaction.
, Jordan and Egypt, in signing a mutual defence pact on 30 May 1967, agreed to revitalise the UAC, placing it under the command of Abdul Munim Riad, chief of staff of the Egyptian military. Nonetheless, when the 1967 Six-Day War
began, the UAC was no longer considered an active body.
Military of the Arab League
The Arab League as an Organization has no military force, like the UN or EU, but recently in the 2007 summit, the Leaders decided to reactivate their joint defense and establilsh a peacekeeping force to deploy in South Lebanon, Darfur, Iraq, and other hot spots....
command
Command (military formation)
A command in military terminology is an organisational unit that the individual in Military command has responsibility for. A Commander will normally be specifically appointed into the role in order to provide a legal framework for the authority bestowed...
established by unanimous resolution of the thirteen member states of the Arab League
Arab League
The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a...
at the summit
1964 Arab League summit (Cairo)
The 1964 Arab League summit was the first summit of the Arab League, held in Cairo, Egypt, on 13 - 16 January 1964 and attended by all thirteen member states....
held in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, on 13 - 16 January 1964.
Predecessors
The UAC was the culmination of a history of pan-ArabistPan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification--or, sometimes, close cooperation and solidarity against perceived enemies of the Arabs--of the countries of the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs...
collective security
Collective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...
initiatives, which began to coalesce from 1960 until the UAC's formal creation in 1964. The Permanent Military Committee (PMC) of the Arab League, composed of representatives from the headquarters of the Arab armies, had been asked on 29 February 1960 by the Council of the Arab League
Council of the Arab League
The Council of the Arab League is the principal institution of the Arab League and was created by article 3 of the Charter of the Arab League.-Organisation:...
to prepare a comprehensive plan for all possible contingencies arising from Israeli water diversion initiatives. The PMC's response was that joint military action would require extensive preparation and that the Chief-of-Staffs Committee (the Military Advisory Committee) should be invoked to set up a joint apparatus of approximately 100 officers.
Another pan-Arabist body, the Joint Defence Council
Joint Defence Council (Arab League)
The Joint Defence Council of the Arab League is an institution of the Arab League established under the terms of the Joint Defence and Economic Co-operation Treaty to co-ordinate the joint defence of the Arab League....
, consisting of Arab foreign and defence ministers and chiefs-of-staff, met in Cairo (10 - 18 June 1961) and proposed the establishment of a Joint Arab Command. The UAR encouraged the delegation of decisive power to the commanding officer of this new command; under the terms of the 1950 Arab Joint Security Pact, such a commanding officer "would be chosen from the member state with the largest troop presence", namely Egypt.
Background
President of Egypt
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
(1918 - 1970) in the face of repeated Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n accusations of Egyptian reluctance for military confrontation with Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, although the more immediate catalyst was Israel's proposed diversion of water from Lake Tiberias
Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias , is the largest freshwater lake in Israel, and it is approximately in circumference, about long, and wide. The lake has a total area of , and a maximum depth of approximately 43 m...
. The creation of the UAC was part of the Arab League's response to Israel's proposal, together with a plan to divert two sources of the River Jordan: the Hasbani River
Hasbani River
The Hasbani River , also known as Snir Stream within Israel, is a tributary of the Jordan river.The Hasbani River derives most of its discharge from two springs in Lebanon, the Wazzani and the Haqzbieh, the latter being a group of springs on the uppermost Hasbani...
and the Banias
Banias
Banias is an archaeological site by the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights...
.
The creation of the UAC was announced by Cairo Radio; no mention of the UAC was made in the official communiqué
Communique
A communiqué is a brief report or statement released by a public agency.Communiqué may also refer to:* Communiqué , a rock band* Communiqué , 1979* Communiqué , 1987...
from the summit, although the secretary-general of the Arab League himself, Abdel Khalek Hassouna
Abdul Khalek Hassouna
Mohammed Abdul Khalek Hassouna was an Egyptian diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the Arab League from 1952 to 1972.-Life and career:...
, had stated that certain adopted resolutions would remain secret.
Response
HusseinHussein
Hussein , is an Arabic name which is the diminutive of Hassan, meaning "good", "handsome" or "beautiful"...
, king of Jordan, had experience of joint defence arrangements among the Arab states, and was not particularly enthusiastic about the establishment of the UAC. Nonetheless, he gave it his support, and later charged the UAC with command of the military operations of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
(PLO) as a condition to Jordan's co-operation, lest the PLO draw Jordan into a war with Israel for which it was ill-prepared.
Michael Stewart
Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham
Robert Michael Maitland Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham, CH, PC was a British Labour politician and Fabian Socialist who served twice as Foreign Secretary in the first cabinet of Harold Wilson.- Early life :...
, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
foreign minister
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
(22 January 1965 – 11 August 1966), in a memorandum
Memorandum
A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...
to the Defence and Oversea Policy cabinet committee
United Kingdom cabinet committee
The executive arm of the United Kingdom government is controlled by the Cabinet, a group of senior government ministers chaired by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet has a group of committees called cabinet committees, which perform most of the day-to-day work of cabinet government.The committee...
, wrote that the formation of the UAC and its undertaking of "ostensibly defensive military planning against Israel" constituted a "somewhat more dangerous phase" of the Arab–Israeli conflict
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to political tensions and open hostilities between the Arab peoples and the Jewish community of the Middle East. The modern Arab-Israeli conflict began with the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century, and intensified with the...
. Certainly, Britain conceded that the UAC had become a "relatively competent and effective body", capable of ordering a retaliatory action against Israel should the Arab water diversion plan come under attack.
Arthur Lourie, Israeli ambassador to Britain, claimed that the establishment of the UAC had raised the tension in the region and had enabled Egypt to gain control over the military forces of its fellow Arab states.
Organisation
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
, Ali Ali Amer, and with headquarters in Cairo. Notwithstanding the Egyptian bent to the UAC, its cost of creation, GBP
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
15 million, was mostly contributed by the oil-rich member states, with Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
and Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
topping the list.
Following the 1966 Samu Incident
Samu Incident
The Samu incident refers to events on November 13, 1966 involving an Israeli military attack on the Jordanian-controlled West Bank village of Samu in response to Fatah raids against Israelis near the West Bank border...
, Egypt and Jordan agreed to revitalise the UAC in May 1967, appointing as its new commander Abdul Munim Riad
Abdul Munim Riad
Abdul Munim Riad was a general and chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces. He was killed along with several of his aides in an Israeli mortar attack on March 9 1969...
, chief of staff of the Egyptian military
Military of Egypt
The Egyptian Armed Forces are the largest in Africa, and the Arab World, and is the tenth largest in the world, consisting of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy, Egyptian Air Force and Egyptian Air Defense Command....
.
Tasks
An early task of the UAC was the auditAudit
The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...
ing of the Arab armies, in respect of strength and organisation, and, at the request of Hussein, king of Jordan, the command of the PLO's military operations.
However, meaningful action by the UAC against Israel was given two pre-conditions by the commander-in-chief, Ali Ali Amer, at the second Arab League summit
1964 Arab League summit (Alexandria)
The 1964 Arab League summit in Alexandria was held in September in Montaza Palace, Alexandria as the second Arab League Summit. The focus of the conference was to implement the plans discussed at the first Arab League summit held in January of that year...
, held in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, Egypt, in September 1964. Firstly, the confrontation states - Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
and Syria - must allow the UAC to station foreign Arab troops on their soil at the UAC's discretion. Secondly, there must be co-ordination and standardisation of strategy, tactics, organisation and weaponry. While the second pre-condition was agreed to in principle, the three confrontation states baulked at allowing Egyptian encroachment on their territory.
Operation Shredder
The pre-conditions to military action set at the September 1964 Arab League summit proved insurmountable: in November 1966, the Israeli military stormed the village of as-SamuAs-Samu
As Samu or es-Samu is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron. as-Samu is 60 kilometers south-west of Jerusalem. The area is a hilly, rocky area cut by some wadis. The Armistice Demarcation Line runs generally east to west approximately five...
in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
in an operation code-named Shredder. Casualties among the Jordanian military
Jordanian Armed Forces
The Jordanian Armed Forces , also referred to as The Arab Army , with all of it branches, is under direct control of the King of Jordan...
numbered 16, with 3 civilians and 1 Israeli. In the aftermath to the incident, the UAC was noticeable for its inaction.
Six-Day War
Folloing the Samu IncidentSamu Incident
The Samu incident refers to events on November 13, 1966 involving an Israeli military attack on the Jordanian-controlled West Bank village of Samu in response to Fatah raids against Israelis near the West Bank border...
, Jordan and Egypt, in signing a mutual defence pact on 30 May 1967, agreed to revitalise the UAC, placing it under the command of Abdul Munim Riad, chief of staff of the Egyptian military. Nonetheless, when the 1967 Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
began, the UAC was no longer considered an active body.