United Arab Command

The United Arab Command (UAC) (also Unified Arab Command or Joint Arab Command) was a unified Arab military command established by unanimous resolution of the thirteen member states of the Arab League at the summit held in Cairo, Egypt, on 13–16 January 1964.

The UAC was the culmination of a history of pan-Arabist collective security initiatives, which began to coalesce from 1960 until the UAC's formal creation in 1964. The Permanent Military Committee (PMC) of the Arab League, composed of representatives from the headquarters of the Arab armies, had been asked on 29 February 1960 by the Council of the Arab League to prepare a comprehensive plan for all possible contingencies arising from Israeli water diversion initiatives. The PMC's response was that joint military action would require extensive preparation and that the Chief-of-Staffs Committee (the Military Advisory Committee) should be invoked to set up a joint apparatus of approximately 100 officers.

Another pan-Arabist body, the Joint Defence Council, consisting of Arab foreign and defence ministers and chiefs-of-staff, met in Cairo (10 – 18 June 1961) and proposed the establishment of a Joint Arab Command. The UAR encouraged the delegation of decisive power to the commanding officer of this new command; under the terms of the 1950 Arab Joint Security Pact, such a commanding officer "would be chosen from the member state with the largest troop presence", namely Egypt.

The UAC was proposed by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 – 1970) in the face of repeated Syrian accusations of Egyptian reluctance for military confrontation with Israel, although the more immediate catalyst was Israel's proposed diversion of water from Lake Tiberias. The creation of the UAC was part of the Arab League's response to Israel's proposal, together with a plan to divert two sources of the River Jordan: the Hasbani River and the Banias.

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