| On October 29, 1956, Israel launched an aggression against Egypt. According to a secret agreement concluded between Britain, France and Israel at a meeting in Sevres, France from October 22 to 24, 1956, Israel was to attack Egypt on that day and seem to threaten the Suez Canal. The British and French, acting ostensibly to protect the Suez Canal and separate the combatants, would issue an ultimatum calling on Israel and Egypt to withdraw ten miles from the Suez Canal and on Egypt to accept temporary British-French occupation of the Suez Canal Zone. The rejection of the ultimatum by Egypt would provide the pretext for Britain and France to invade Egypt and reoccupy the Suez Canal under the hoax of "stopping the fighting" and "safeguarding the canal." As set out in this secret agreement, Britain and France issued their ultimatum on October 30 and launched their aggression on October 31 involving 100,000 troops. Navigation on the Suez Canal came to a halt because of the sinking of ships along its length. What was the objective of the Anglo-French aggression? On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company and the Suez Canal, both of which belonged to Egypt. Previously the Suez Canal was governed by a board of thirty-two administrators (18 French, 10 British, two Egyptian, one American, and one Dutch) and was operated by the Universal Company of the Suez Maritime Canal, a French company, with 80 per cent of the shares held by British and French investors. Nasser guaranteed compensation to the shareholders and the normal operation of the canal without discrimination to users that, at that time, were mainly British and French ships. He declared his intention of using canal tolls and charges, which had previously gone into the coffers of the foreign investors, to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam along the Nile River. Thus, the Suez Canal passed from so-called "international control" to Egyptian control and Egypt further consolidated its independence. Britain and France opposed the nationalization of the canal and immediately planned their aggression against Egypt. The nationalization of the canal company was a pretext for launching an offensive on all the Arab countries. The struggle of Egypt and the Arab peoples for independence had caused great damage especially to the major colonialist powers, Britain and France, whose monopolies were losing the colossal super profits they made by plundering the tremendous resources of these countries. Tunis and Morocco had won their independence, while Algeria was fighting to throw off the yoke of French colonialism. These countries of the Middle East possessed three-quarters of the oil reserves of the capitalist world and 60 to 70 per cent of the oil requirements of Britain and 48 per cent of the oil requirements of France came from the Middle East and were transported through the Suez Canal. Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal Company greatly inspired the peoples of that region in their struggles against British and French colonialism. By attacking Egypt, the Anglo-French imperialists intended to deprive it of ownership of the Suez Canal, to put down Egypt's resistance and, by crushing the resistance of one of the major Arab peoples, to demoralize the other Arab states, to pave the way for depriving them of their national independence and for re-establishing the colonial domination. The assault on Egypt was the first step in this scheme. But the Anglo-French-Israeli aggression against Egypt failed from the standpoint of re-establishing "international control" of the Suez Canal, subduing the Egyptian people, or demoralizing the other Arab states and peoples. |