Second Syrian Republic in the context of "First Syrian Republic"

The United Arab Republic (UAR; Arabic: الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, romanized: al-Jumhūriyya al-ʿArabiyya al-Muttaḥida) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. It was initially a short-lived political union between Egypt (including Egyptian-governed Gaza) and Syria from 1958 until Syria seceded from the union following the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. Egypt continued to be known officially as the United Arab Republic until it was formally dissolved by Anwar Sadat in September 1971.

The republic was led by Gamal Abdel Nasser as the Egyptian president. The UAR was a member of the United Arab States, a loose confederation with the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, which was dissolved in 1961. It was a brief pan-Arab union.

The occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Arab Republic began in 1959 following the dissolution of the All-Palestine Protectorate, which had ruled the Gaza Strip as a client state of Egypt since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and its merger with the United Arab Republic.

The 1949 Armistice Agreements, which ended the Arab–Israeli War by delineating the Green Line as the armistice line between Israel and its four neighboring countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt), left the Kingdom of Egypt in control of a small swath of territory that was part of Mandatory Palestine prior to the war. That swath of territory became known as the Gaza Strip. In 1949 Egypt created the client state named the All-Palestine Government which lasted until 1959, the year after the Republic of Egypt and the Second Syrian Republic merged to form a single sovereign state known as the United Arab Republic. The Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip was interrupted for 4 months in late 1956 and early 1957 when Israel briefly occupied the strip as part of the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Egyptian occupation ended entirely during the 1967 Six-Day War, after which the territory became occupied by Israel with the establishment of the Israeli Military Governorate.

The United Arab States (UAS, Arabic: اتحاد الدول العربية) was a short-lived confederation between the United Arab Republic and the Kingdom of 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, which had already signed a defense pact with Egypt, entered a loose confederation with the UAR called the United Arab States on March 8. One reason for this decision was because North Yemen had felt threatened by its considerably larger and more powerful northern neighbor Saudi Arabia and saw the confederation as a source of security. However, unlike the constituent countries of the United Arab Republic, North Yemen remained an independent sovereign state, maintaining its UN membership and separate embassies throughout the whole period of confederation.

The Flag of the United Arab Republic (Arabic: علم الجمهورية العربية المتحدة) was adopted following the unification of Egypt and Syria into a single state known as the United Arab Republic on 22 February 1958. Syria left the union on 28 September 1961 following the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. Egypt would continue to use the name and symbols of the United Arab Republic until 1972. The flag would be readopted by Ba'athist Syria in 1980, leading to its use as a symbol of Neo-Ba'athism.

The flag still remains in use outside of Syria by modern Nasserist political groups such as the Iraqi Nasserist Socialist Vanguard Party.

A referendum on the formation of the United Arab Republic and appointing Gamal Abdel Nasser as its president was held in Syria on 21 February 1958, alongside a simultaneous referendum in Egypt. The formation of the UAR was approved of voters, with only 139 voting against, whilst Nasser was approved as president by a similar margin.