The dispute with Syria worsens

Syria was the last of the Arab states to sign an armistice agreement with Israel after the 1948 war, and the first in which the civil regime was replaced by the military in the wake of the war. The coup in March 1949, whereby Colonel Husni al-Zaim seized power, was the first in a long series of frequent changes of government in Damascus, the great majority of them military coups.1