They were released and Shishakli was overthrown in February 1954. As Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser became the preeminent leader of the pan-Arabist movement in the latter half of the 1950s, Droubi was drawn to his leadership. Droubi increasingly preached pan-Arabist ideas and worked towards Arab unification, as well as call for the establishment of socialism in Syria along the lines of Egypt under Nasser.[1]