Cairo -

"The International Company for the Suez Maritime Canal is nationalized as an Egyptian joint stock company, and all its funds, rights, and obligations will be transferred to the state, and all bodies and committees currently in charge of its management will be dissolved."

With this phrase, the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser stood in Manshiya Square in Alexandria, announcing his historic decision to nationalize the Suez Canal Company, on this day, July 26, 1956. Was the man aware that these words would make him an Arab leader and a symbol of standing against colonialism, and that they Will it cause the armies of 3 countries to move towards the canal?

Did anyone expect at the time that Russia would threaten to bomb London and Paris with nuclear missiles?

And that the battle is considered among the signs of the end of the British Empire?

Nasser's greatest moments

After the United States announced on July 19, 1956, refusal to fund a project to build a dam on the Nile River in the far south of Egypt, the Egyptians were waiting for the reaction of their leader, who was hiding in his heart a great decision, which he began to present to those close to him and receive enthusiastic or anxious reactions And apprehensive one by one.

On the morning of July 22, Abdel Nasser called the journalist close to him, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, and proposed to him the idea of ​​nationalizing the Suez Canal Company, and told him: I know it will be a dangerous battle, and I thought about its possibilities all night and this morning, and made my calculations, and I think that the chances of success before us are high.

Heikal tells in his encyclopedic book "The Suez Files" how he sat listening to Nasser, describing him "in fact, that was one of the greatest moments of his life, and he regained his role as a staff officer and wrote everything on paper...".

Nasser wrote his plan on papers, and the written goal was: The Suez Canal Company, and this achieves the possibility of financing the High Dam, and that nationalization fulfills an Egyptian right that dreams of all Egyptians, and it also confirms complete Egyptian independence, including the independence of political will, and it also adds the importance of the Canal to the balances of Egypt strategy.

Who intervenes militarily?

Nasser estimated that the military intervention would be the initial reaction of many parties, but they would rethink and hesitate. He believed that America would hesitate mostly because its military intervention against a small country like Egypt is considered political bankruptcy and embarrasses it with its Arab allies, in particular the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, France is busy in the war of Algeria, Israel It may consider intervention, but it cannot argue with the nationalization of a company. The greater danger is Britain: how will it act and how its Prime Minister Anthony Eden does?

Nasser thought of announcing the nationalization decision during his speech on the occasion of the July 23 revolution, at the opening ceremony of the new oil pipeline between Suez and Mostorod, but he preferred to wait a bit, only he said clearly during his speech: We will build the High Dam with our own hands, even if it is by harvest!

During the speech, he caught his eye on the engineer Mahmoud Younis, head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, and decided to choose him to be the first responsible for the process of nationalizing the canal, and gave him all the powers and authorities to choose his men and aides to develop a plan to nationalize the Suez Canal within 55 hours.

According to Haykal's book, Nasser thought about the matter on July 23 before giving his speech, and then postponed the decision to his next speech in Alexandria on July 26, so that he would have time to develop the plan and assign the nationalization team to develop a plan of action. English forces in the Mediterranean that can intervene militarily, and to be assured that the existing forces cannot carry out military operations quickly.

The groups tasked with implementing the nationalization plan moved in groups of 5 or 6 individuals, headed by a military commander, who carried a set of letters, each bearing the name of the destination he intended, and each of them the instructions to be implemented. The password to start the movement was “Delibes,” which Abdel Nasser repeated in His speech to make sure that the nationalization groups heard them, the speech began at 8:30 pm, and before 10:15, all the main headquarters of the Suez Canal Authority were under the control of the Egyptian nationalization team.

absence of documents

Heikal's book "The Suez Files" is considered the most important reference in referring to the details of the nationalization of the canal, which raises the questions of academics interested in the Egyptian point of view, especially in the presence of many foreign books that dealt with nationalization and the subsequent Suez War.

History professor Khaled Fahmy says: In the absence of official documents related to this important event, we cannot know much of the circumstances of this decision, which changed the history of the entire region. For example, did any of the Free Officers, members of the Revolutionary Command Council, or other members of the ruling elite take the initiative to present the idea of The nationalization of the Suez Canal before July 21, 1956, or was Abdel Nasser the only one who invented and monopolized it?

In addition to the aphorisms that Nasser gave to the members of the Council of Ministers, two hours before the nationalization speech, when he said, “I do not want any of you to take responsibility for a dangerous decision that he did not know about until a short time before it was announced.” Ministers who were in a small house on the beach of Glim in Alexandria?

Fahmy asks

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reactions

Nasser waited anxiously for the delayed reactions, then the Soviet reaction came to gratify his chest, as Moscow said in its statement, "The canal belongs to Egypt, and its nationalization is a normal legal procedure, in the interest of Egypt's economy."

In London, Eden revolted, and media reports say that he entered the Treasury Secretary Macmillan screaming, "I will destroy him, I will destroy him, I will erase every trace of him from the world." To the British people, "Nasser is our enemy, not the Egyptian people."

After the denounced reactions in France and England, Anwar Sadat wrote a newspaper article entitled "Cader and Vagrant" in which he said, "I ask the fallacious Eden how freedom of navigation has become today in danger and the canal is under the control of Egypt since the revolution. Did the prudent Eden imagine that his soldiers who were on the canal They are the ones who protect her? If he imagines this, he is a fool.. As for the fact that this decision is arbitrary, this is a matter that calls for ridicule and ridicule.. And according to what the common proverb says: capable.. and immoral.”

aggression

The aggression against Egypt began with the movement of the Israeli forces in Sinai on the afternoon of October 29, and the French and British aviation took over Egypt from the end of the same month until November 4, then the British paratroopers began landing in Port Said, and the troop carriers advanced under the protection of cannons. The fleet began the land invasion, and popular resistance erupted in the streets of Port Said, and the Egyptian radio sang enthusiastic songs that were hastily recorded, "God is great above the plot of the aggressor, let my heavens and my heavens be a holocaust."

At a time when many countries were condemning the aggression, London was inflamed with demonstrations opposed to the war, and the controversy raged in the corridors of the United Nations about the ceasefire, the strongest and most serious warning came from Moscow, as it reached London and Paris, a strong-worded Soviet warning calling for an immediate halt to military operations, and the withdrawal of the aggressor forces He clearly indicates that "London and Paris are not far from the range of nuclear missiles," according to Haykal's account.

Eden agreed to a proposal from his men to travel immediately to Washington to meet with his ally, US President Dwight Eisenhower, to respond to the dangerous warning, but the American ambassador told him that the president was busy celebrating his victory in the presidential elections, and that he could not meet him before the ceasefire so that Washington would not be a partner in the attack adventure. On Egypt, an attack whose details were deliberately hidden from it.

On the evening of November 6, London and Paris announced their acceptance of a cease-fire and the withdrawal of their forces from Egypt, ending Nasser's adventure with a great political victory, after which he became an Arab nationalist leader despite the heavy losses in property and lives on the Egyptian side. Historians write his decision to nationalize the canal and what followed Aggression at the end of the era of the French and British empires, as well as clearly revealing the Israeli ambitions in the Sinai, and making Moscow a strong ally of Cairo.