NEW ARAB UNION

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 11

NEW ARAB UNION

King Feisal To Be Head

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BAGDAD, March 19. Iraq and Jordan today approved King Feisal of Iraq as head of the Arab Union. The union’s constitution, ratified today by the Iraqi Parliament at a joint session with Jordanian parliamentary representatives, said King Feisal would head the union and, in his absence, King Hussein of Jordan would take over.

The constitution said membership of the union was open to every Arab state. If a new State were admitted, the status of the head of the union would be reconsidered accordingly. The union’s member-states would individually observe treaties, agreements and international pacts to which they had been bound before joining the union. This covers Iraq’s membership of the Bagdad Pact. But future agreements would be decided on by the union’s joint government.

The union would have a Chamber of Deputies, consisting of 40 members—2o from Iraq and 20 from Jordan—and would also have a Council of Ministers consisting of the Deputy Premier and a number of Cabinet Ministers.

The constitution said the Chamber of Deputies could impeach Cabinet members and send them for trial before the union’s Supreme Court.

If they were convicted, they would be dismissed from office. The head of the union would also be the Commander-in-Chief of the Arab Army—and he alone had the power to declare war after the Council of Ministers’ approval.

King Hussein would assume command of the armies in Jordan.

The text of the constitution was drafted at Iraqi-Jordanian talks which ended on Monday. The Arab Federal State, uniting the two countries, was proclaimed on February 14. [The Aras Federal Union has no connexion with the new United Arab Republic comprising Egypt, Syria and Yemen.]