Angry in the Great White North

In 1958, fearing the infiltration of communism, and recgonizing the popularity of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdal Nasser in the wake of the Suez Crisis, Syrian leaders joined with Egypt to form a new country, the United Arab Republic.

That was February 1, 1958. Cairo was the capital for this new nation, and Nasser its president.

But, you say, we still have Egypt and Syria. True. This union dissolved in three years. The Syrians got tired of being the second fiddle in this two piece orchestra.

The union was intended to encompass other nations as well, but the Syrians bailed before it got off the ground. The flag for the union was this:

The two stars were for Egypt and Syria. Recognize it? You should. Syria continues to use this flag today. The Egyptians also used the same flag, and continued to use it until 1971. In fact, the official name of the country was United Arab Republic until 1971, a full 10 years after the republic ceased to be united. Confusing, eh?

Finally, in 1972, Egypt changed its name and changed the flag (same tricolour, but with the golden eagle of Saladin -- who was a Kurd, by the way, and not an Egyptian -- occupying the centre).

That flag might seem familiar for other reasons as well. It was very similar to the flag of Iraq, until recently:

The three stars symbolized the notion that Iraq would have become the third member of this new union. Though the union died in 1961, Iraq continued to use this flag until 2004 (in 1991 the words "Allahu Akbar" were added to the white field, and the stars officially lost their meaning with regards to the long since defunct UAR, but came to represent the three tenets of Ba'athism -- Unity, Freedom, Socialism).

So what does this have to do with today? Probably nothing, but I found it interesting to think about this when I saw this news from Aljazeera:

Iran's new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has received his Syrian counterpart, the first head of state to visit since his inauguration.

The two leaders reiterated that their two countries should form a united front against their opponents.

"Common threats deserve the formation of a united front by Iran and Syria more than ever," Aljazeera quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at a joint press conference with al-Assad.

Iran and Syria have long been close. Sunday's was al-Assad's fourth visit to Iran since he took office in 2000. During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Syria was the only Arab country to support Iran.

During the past 10 years, Iranian companies have invested more than $700 million in Syria in sectors such as power generation, cars, cement and agriculture, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Does this mean Syria is about to give up its sovereignty for the second time, but this time to join with Iran? The new Iranian president is certainly heaping praise on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:

Ahmadinejad, who was sworn in on Saturday, described al-Assad, 39, as the youngest and most intelligent Arab head of state, reported Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

I doubt anything will come of this, but it's not like it hasn't happened before. And with the US looking at both Syria and Iran as the next troublemakers that need to be dealt with...