Suez Crisis

Suez Crisis, conflict involving Great Britain, France, Israel, and Egypt (October 29-November 6, 1956). The immediate cause of the Suez Crisis was the nationalization of the Anglo-French Suez Canal Company by the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser on July 26, 1956. The British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, believed that Nasser's action threatened Britain's oil supplies from the Persian Gulf and her trade with East Asia via the Suez Canal (see British Foreign Policy Since 1800). Nasser was also seen as challenging Britain's preponderance in the Middle East, and Eden was determined to use the nationalization issue to overthrow the Egyptian leader by force. The British chiefs of staff were ordered to plan a military expedition to Egypt for this purpose. France, also angered by Nasser's action but even more so by the flow of Egyptian arms to the independence fighters in Algeria, agreed to join Britain. Eden anticipated United States support for Anglo-French action, but the US President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, rejected the use of force to resolve the issue. The United States exploited the delay resulting from the slow progress of the Anglo-French military preparations to try to sponsor a peaceful settlement of the nationalization issue, but these efforts failed in the face of Anglo-French obstruction.

Despite Eisenhower's refusal to back him, Eden was determined to act against Egypt, and to this end Britain and France colluded with Israel, which had its own border quarrels with Egypt, at a secret meeting of Israeli, British, and French ministers at Sèvres in France on October 22 and 23, to secure Israeli involvement in the struggle with Egypt. In accordance with this agreement, on October 29, the Israeli army attacked Egyptian positions in the Sinai Peninsula. Then, as arranged at Sèvres, Britain and France issued an ultimatum on October 30 calling on the two sides to cease fire, withdraw 16 km (10 mi) from the Canal within 12 hours, and allow the Canal Zone to be occupied by Anglo-French forces.

When the Egyptians rejected this ultimatum, British aircraft bombed Egyptian airfields on October 31 and destroyed the Egyptian air force. World opinion was deeply antagonized by the Anglo-French action and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics threatened to intervene on Egypt's side. Eisenhower was particularly indignant, and the United States sponsored two resolutions, which were passed unanimously, in the United Nations General Assembly on November 2 and 4, calling for a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Egypt, and for the dispatch of a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to Egypt to supervise the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Egypt. Britain and France ignored these resolutions and between November 4 and 6 Anglo-French airborne and amphibious forces landed near the Canal, defeated the Egyptian defenders, and began to advance along the Canal. However, Britain now faced a serious financial crisis and an oil shortage—Egypt had blockaded the Canal during the fighting. The United States refused to help Britain with either money or oil until British forces withdrew from Egypt. Fearing bankruptcy, the British (with reluctant French acquiescence) agreed to a ceasefire on November 6 (Israel had stopped fighting on November 5). On December 3, 1956, after further controversy over Britain's demand that Anglo-French forces should become part of UNEF, which the United States rejected, Anglo-French forces began to withdraw from Egypt, and Britain then received American financial support and oil supplies. It was a humiliating reversal for Britain and France, and Eden resigned as prime minister in January 1957.