The signing of the Egyptian–Jordanian Mutual Defence Treaty

On the morning of 30 May 1967 King Hussein flew to Cairo to meet Nasser. He was accompanied by his Prime Minister, Saad Juma'a, his Foreign Minister, Ahmed Toukan, his Chief of Staff, Lt General Amer Khammash, the commander of the Royal Jordanian air force, Brigadier Saleh Al-Kurdi and an air force captain as aide de camp. At Cairo airport the Jordanians were met by Nasser and his four vice-Presidents. They went immediately to the Kubbeh Palace for talks. The Egyptian delegation included Nasser, the foreign minister, Mahmoud Riad, the Secretary-General of the Egyptian President's Office, Abdul Majid Farid, and the four vice-Presidents of the UAR, including Field Marshall Amer. Later they were joined by General Abdul Munim Riad, the Chief of Staff of the UAC, and Ahmed Shukairy, the leader of the PLO. The result of these talks was the Egyptian–Jordanian Mutual Defence Treaty. The signing ceremony of the Treaty was broadcast live over Cairo Radio and was followed by a press conference attended by the two heads of state and Ahmed Shukairy.

According to the Treaty, ‘the two contracting powers consider any armed attack on either state or its forces an attack on both. Consequently … they commit themselves to hasten each to the assistance of the attacked state and immediately take all measures … including the use of the armed forces to repulse the attack’ (Article 1). In the event of military operations the Jordanian Armed Forces were to be placed under the command of the Chief of Staff of the United Arab Republic (Article 7), the Egyptian General Muhammad Fawzi.