United Arab States

Short-lived confederation of the United Arab Republic and the Kingdom of Yemen (1958–1961)

United Arab States

الدول العربية المتحدة
ad-Duwal al-‘Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah

1958–1961

Flag

Coat of arms

Capital

Cairo

Common languages

Arabic

Religion

Islam

Historical era

Arab Cold War

• Established

8 March 1958

• Disestablished

26 December 1961

Preceded by

Succeeded by

	United Arab Republic
	Kingdom of Yemen

Egypt
Syria
Kingdom of Yemen

The United Arab States (UAS, Arabic: الدول العربية المتحدة) was a short-lived confederation of the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria) and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen) from 1958 to 1961.

The United Arab Republic was a sovereign state formed by the union of Egypt and Syria in 1958. The same year, the Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen), which had already signed a defense pact with Egypt, joined with the new state on March 8, 1958, in a loose confederation called the United Arab States. One reason for this decision was that, for a long time, Yemen had felt threatened by its considerably larger and more powerful northern neighbour, Saudi Arabia (the two had fought a war in 1934, and still shared a partially undemarcated border), and thus saw the confederation as a source of security.^[1] However, unlike the member countries of the United Arab Republic, North Yemen remained an independent sovereign state. It maintained its UN membership and separate embassies throughout the whole period of confederation.

Neither the union nor the confederation fulfilled their role as vehicles of pan-Arabism or Arab nationalism, as they were dissolved in 1961.