February 21:Voters in Egypt and Syria approve their countries’ merger in plebiscites.
Yemen will later join the union.
July 14:King Faisal of Iraq and leaders of his government are overthrown and killed in
a military coup. Brig. Gen. Abd al-Karim al-Qasim becomes prime minister. Relations
between Iraq and Jordan are severed, thus ending the five-month-old Arab Federation.
July 15:The United States sends 5,000 marines to Lebanon to bolster the government
of President Camile Chamoun, who has come under attack from Muslim forces
aligned with Nasser of Egypt. The marines will begin withdrawing one month later
and complete the operation on October 25.
August 13:President Eisenhower gives the UN General Assembly a “framework” for a
Middle East peace plan, calling for a UN peacekeeping force and the economic
development of Arab nations.
1959
January 17:Britain and Egypt sign an agreement ending their dispute over the Suez
Canal.
March 24:Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact.
August:The Middle East Treaty Organization is renamed the Central Treaty Organi-
zation (CENTO), with Britain, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey as full members and the
United States participating as a nonmember.
1960
September 15:Meeting in Baghdad, delegates from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
and Venezuela agree to form the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Coun-
tries (OPEC) to help stabilize world oil prices.
1961
June 19:Britain grants independence to Kuwait. Iraq will later claim Kuwait as an
“integral part” of its territory, and at Egypt’s instigation, the Arab League will send
troops to Kuwait to protect its independence.
September 29:One day after a military coup in Damascus, the new government of
Syria announces its withdrawal from the United Arab Republic, which had been
composed of Egypt, Syria, and Yemen.
December 26:Egyptian president Nasser dissolves the union with Yemen but retains
the name United Arab Republic for Egypt.
1963
January 26:The shah of Iran begins the White Revolution, a program of moderniza-
tion and land reform. It will lead to protests and the eventual arrest and deporta-
tion to Iraq (in 1964) of protest leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
February 8:Members of the Iraqi branch of the Baath Party and other nationalist lead-
ers overthrow Prime Minister Qasim, who is killed the following day.
November 18:The Syrian government that seized power in February is ousted.
1964
May 28: The Palestine National Council (PNC) holds its first meeting, in East
Jerusalem, under Arab League sponsorship.
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