“Well informed West Bank sources” say that Jordan and Syria are moving toward the establishment of a federation to be known as the “United Arab State” consisting of two autonomous regions having a combined central government, a unified army and command and a joint parliament that will meet alternately in Amman and Damascus.
The sources were quoted in an article published in the Jerusalem Post today by its Middle East correspondent Anan Safadi. According to the writer, the federation will be proclaimed upon completion of discussions that the sources say have been going on for eight months. These discussions are related to the integration of the policies and economies of the two countries and are aimed at drafting a joint constitution that will seek to reconcile, the differences inherent in the socialist regime in Syria and the Jordanian monarchy, the Post said.
Other matters that have to be settled, the sources said, are the presidency and the location of the capital of the projected federation. Under the plan, Syria and Jordan will each become an autonomous region of the “United Arab State.” President Hafez. Assad will continue to be chief of state of Syria and King Hussein will continue to rule in Jordan. But the West Bank informants who, according to Safadi have close ties with Amman, said Hussein has indicated that he is prepared to be second in command to Assad.
DUE BY NEXT JUNE
The new federation will come into being by next June “unless unforeseen developments cause difficulties between the two countries,” the informants told the Post. Hussein and Assad are scheduled to meet next month before the Jordanian ruler leaves on an extensive trip abroad that will take him to the U.S., Mexico, Japan and Australia.
Observers here, commenting on the report, said Hussein may be willing to enter into a federation with Syria even to the extent of deferring to Assad in order to guarantee the political, survival of his Hashemite regime which has been criticized in the Arab world by supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Of all the Arab states, Syria is the most ardent champion of the PLO and is also presently the largest recipient of Soviet arms.
Syria has a history of linkages with other Arab countries. In 1958 it joined with Egypt, under the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, to form the United Arab Republic. The UAR lasted only three years and was replaced in 1971 by a limited union with Egypt and Libya known as the Federation of Arab Republics which Sudan was supposed to join but did not. A merger between Libya and Egypt, projected in 1973, before the Yom Kippur War, also failed to materialize.
(In Washington, State Department spokesman John Trattner said today he had no evidence to confirm the report from Israel.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
