ABSTRACT
Mu'ammar al- Qadhdhafi, although intent on retaining Egypt's support and protection, was ambivalent about unions as they threatened to undermine his domestic legitimacy. At a tripartite summit meeting in J. Rice Benghazi, Qadhdhafi, Anwar El-Sadat, and Hafiz al Asad announced the establishment of the Federation of Arab Republics (FAR). Unlike the Tripoli Charter, the FAR established a political union at the outset. The federation's constitution stated that the union of the Arab republics had one flag, one capital, and one socialist, democratic political system. With the FAR Sadat was combining the advantages of both: a second active front with the inclusion of Syria in the federation and greater depth with Libya. Qadhdhafi pursued a relentless policy of greater rapprochement with Egypt and called for a merger between the two states. In his memoirs Sadat recalls how Qadhdhafi started a vast media campaign in the summer of 1972 to mobilize the Libyan masses in support of a merger with Egypt.
