Member states of the United Nations the membership of the USSR in the Security Council and all other UN organs was being continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the 11 member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The other fourteen independent states established from the former Soviet Republics were all admitted to the UN: Both Egypt and Syria joined the UN as original members on 24 October 1945. Following a plebiscite on 21 February 1958, the United Arab Republic was established by a union of Egypt and Syria and continued as a single member. On 13 October 1961, Syria, having resumed its
Bahá'í Faith in the United Arab Emirates Bahá'í Faith in the United Arab Emirates The Bahá'í Faith in the United Arab Emirates began before the country gained independence in 1971. The first Bahá'ís arrived in Dubai by 1950, and by 1957 there were four Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies in the region of the United Arab Emirates and a regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Arabian Peninsula. Recent estimates count some 75,000 Bahá'ís or 1.6% of the national population - second only to Iran in number of Bahá'ís in the nations of the Middle East - though the World Christian Encyclopedia estimates closer to 51,700, 1.3%, in 2005.