Libya and Syria agree to tie the knot in the latest merger try
Rarely has a marriage between nations been arranged so quickly. On Sept. 1, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi sounded out Syrian President Hafez Assad on the question of merger. A week later, Assad flew off to Tripoli to discuss details; two days after that the deal was struck. According to a 13-point proclamation issued in Tripoli and Damascus, the two leaders had agreed to form a "political, economic, military and cultural union" that would become "the base for confronting the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland and the liberation...