Arab Nationalist Movement - Decline and Disintegration

Decline and Disintegration

These tensions caused the movement's decline during the late 1960s, and it had ceased to exist as a regional political force by 1970. This development was partially propelled by the defeat of Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War, which had led to the discreditation of Nasserism, and forced the ANM to play down its uniting, pan-Arab creed. The final blow to the ANM had come in 1967-69, as the Levantine branches fractured into competing Marxist parties, precipitated by conflicts within the Palestinian movement. The tendency around Habash tried to regroup the movement by forming the Arab Socialist Action Party as a new Pan-Arab political structure.

Even if nothing remains of the ANM itself today, its disintegration spawned a great number of parties and movements on the left flank of Arab politics. Some of these, for example those in the Palestinian movement and in South Yemen, were to become very influential in their respective countries.