Word: syria
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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From the moment President Nasser unexpectedly observed in a speech last July that "I am not satisfied with what has been achieved in Syria," his new "northern region" has been headed for a housecleaning. In that speech Nasser complained that his Damascus regime had turned up a big deficit and spent all its reserves. Though he did not say so publicly, he was displeased by other developments. He had banned party politics; yet the Baath (socialist) party, the Commu nists and others went on politicking. Syrian Vice President Akram Hourani was acting more like a Prime Minister in Damascus than...
Last week Nasser swung his broom. In a characteristically smooth maneuver for strengthening his own authority without bruising any feelings, he announced a reorganization of the U.A.R. government. The first result was to move Hourani as a member of the new central Cabinet out of Syria and into Egypt. A second was to clip the scheming Colonel Abdel Hamid Ser-raj's power as proconsul in Syria by placing him under the Egyptian Minister of Interior, who would take over Serraj's much-prized authority to appoint Syrian provincial governors. That took care of the two most ambitious...
Nasser is still faced with thunder on the left. Last month, in direct defiance of Nasser's order that his own National Front is the only political party that may operate in Syria, Syrian Communist Chief Khaled Bakdash published an article in Prague proclaiming, "No authority could disband our Communist Party," and ostentatiously returned to Damascus from Czechoslovakia to set up shop again. Since Nasser is not a man to tolerate such defiance, Cairo is guessing that the house-cleaning in Syria is not yet finished...
...resume diplomatic relations with the nation that called him traitor. Some diplomats thought that Nasser would think twice about inheriting the creaky state of Jordan if he felt that Israel would fight to keep Jordan out of his hands. Nasser's economic and political difficulties in absorbing Syria (TIME, June 30) may also have persuaded him that out-and-out annexation of other Arab countries is a poor idea. Provided that he can bring the rest of the Arab world under his sway-as he has already done in Iraq and Saudi Arabia-the Egyptian dictator might be content...
...Syria, after more than six months of Nasser's rule by remote control, found its economy shakier than before. To quiet dissatisfied Syrian businessmen. Nasser allowed Syria a separate budget, vetoed some of his planners' grandiose schemes and ordered a cut in armaments. Unhappy Syrian officers reportedly flung their caps on the table, the traditional gesture of threatening to resign from the army if they do not have their way. More agreeable to Nasser was his three-day meeting with Crown Prince Feisal, Premier of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, who announced that "clouds between the two countries have...