Abd Al-Monem Ali Issa / Researcher
The features of the first frictions between the Iraqi and Syrian entities emerged after their crystallization under the “Sykes-Picot scalpel” in 1916, following Sharif Hussein’s declaration of the revolt against the Ottomans with British support and backing. This action would ultimately lead to the installation of Faisal bin Al-Hussein as King of Syria.
In the wake of the defeat of Faisal’s forces by French forces at the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920, Faisal headed to Palestine, from there to Britain, and then to Iraq, where he was installed as king in 1921, ruling until his death in 1933.
During the era of the Regent Abd al-Ilah, which extended until Abdul Karim Qasim’s coup in 1958, two attempts were made within the context of the “Fertile Crescent” project championed by the Hashemite throne in Iraq, which aimed to establish a Syrian-Iraqi unity that could form the first building block of this project. The first was represented by Sami al-Hinnawi’s coup against Husni al-Za’im on August 14, 1949, which ended with Adib Shishakli’s coup late that same year.
As for the second attempt, which was not destined to see the light of day, officer Muhammad Ma’rouf-who held unionist inclinations toward Iraq and was a collaborator in several Syrian coups-mentions that: “The date for executing the coup against the rule of Shukri al-Quwatli was set for October 31, 1956, but the outbreak of the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt (on October 29 of the same year) prompted us to postpone the operation indefinitely.”
With this latter event, it can be said that the chapter of the “Fertile Crescent” project was completely closed for several reasons. Most prominent among these was the meteoric rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s star in the wake of the outcomes of the aggression, which ultimately led to the demise of the French and British empires, the perpetrators of the aggression alongside Israel. Consequently, confrontation with Abdel Nasser became a form of illusion, or a departure from political realism at best.
