Speech by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser

On the Closing of the Gulf of Aqaba, May 22, 1967

The entire country looks up to you today. The entire Arab nation supports

you. It is clear that in these circumstances the entire people fully support

you and consider the armed forces as their hope today. It is definite that the

entire Arab nation also supports our armed forces in the present circumstances

through which the entire Arab nation is passing.

What I wish to say is that we are now in 1967, and not 1956 after the tri-

partite aggression. A great deal was said and all the secrets were ambiguous.

Israel, its commanders and rulers, boasted a great deal after 1956. I have read

every word written about the 1956 events, and I also know exactly what happened

in 1956.

On the night of Oct. 29, 1956, the Israeli aggression against us began.

Fighting began on Oct. 30. We received the Anglo-French ultimatum which asked

us to withdraw several miles west of the Suez Canal.

On Oct. 31, the Anglo-French attack on us began. The air raids began at

sunset on Oct. 31. At the same time, all our forces in Sinai were withdrawn

completely to inside Egypt. Thus in 1956 we did not have an opportunity to

fight Israel. We decided to withdraw before the actual fighting with Israel

began.

Despite our decision to withdraw, Israel was unable to occupy any of our

positions except after we left them. But Israel created a big uproar, boasted

and said a great deal about the Sinai campaign and the Sinai battle.

Everyone of you knows all the rubbish that was said. They probably

believed it themselves.

Today, more than 10 years after Suez, all the secrets have been exposed.

The most important secret concerns Ben-Gurion, when the imperialists brought

him to France to employ him as a dog for imperialism to begin the operation.

Ben-Gurion refused to undertake anything unless he was given a written

guarantee that they would protect him from the Egyptian bombers and the

Egyptian Air Force. All this is no longer a secret. The entire world knows.

It was on this basis that France sent fighter planes to Ben-Gurion, and it

was also on this basis that Britain pledged to Ben-Gurion to bomb Egyptian

airfields within 24 hours after the aggression began.

This goes to show how much they took into account the Egyptian forces. Ben

Gurion himself said he had to think about the Haifa-Jerusalem-Tel-Aviv

triangle, which contains one-third of Israel's population. He could not attack

Egypt out of fear of the Egyptian Air Force and bombers.

At that time, we had a few Ilyushin bombers. We had just acquired them to

arm ourselves. Today we have many Illyushins and others. There is a great

difference between yesterday and today, between 1956 and 1967.

Why do I say all this? I say it because we are in a confrontation with

Israel. Israel today is not backed by Britain and France as was the case in

1956. It has the United States, which supports it and supplies it with arms.

But the world cannot again accept the plotting which took place in 1956.

Israel has been clamoring since 1956. It speaks of Israel's competence and

high standard of training. It is backed in this by the West and the Western

press. They capitalized on the Sinai campaign, where no fighting actually took

place because we had withdrawn to confront Britain and France.

Today we have a chance to prove the fact. We have indeed a chance to make

the world see matters in their true perspective. We are now face to face with

Israel. In recent days Israel has been making threats of aggression and it has

been boasting.

On May 12 a very impertinent statement was made. Anyone reading the

statement must believe that these people are so boastful and deceitful that one

simply cannot remain silent. The statement said that the Israeli commanders

have announced they would carry out military operations against Syria in order

to occupy Damascus and overthrow the Syrian Government.

On the same day, Israeli Premier [Levy] Eshkol made a strongly threatening

statement against Syria. At the same time, the commentaries said the Israelis

believed Egypt could not make a move because it was bogged down in Yemen.

Of course they said that we are bogged down in Yemen and have problems

there. We are in Yemen. But they seem to believe the lies they have been saying

all these years about our existence in Yemen. It is also possible that the

Israelis believe such lies.

We are capable of bearing our duties in Yemen, and at the same time doing

our national duty here in Egypt in defending our borders and in attacking if

Israel attacks Arab country.

On May 13 we received accurate information that Israel was concentrating

on the Syrian border huge armed forces of about 11 to 13 brigades. These forces

were divided into two fronts, one south of Lake Tiberias and the other north of

the lake.

The decision made by Israel at this time was to carry out an aggression

against Syria as of May 17. On May 14, we took our measures, discussed the

matter and contacted our Syrian brothers. The Syrians also had this

information.

On this basis, Lieutenant General Mahmud Fawzi left for Syria to

coordinate matters. We told them that we had decided that if Syria was

attacked, Egypt would enter the battle from the first minute. This was the

situation May 14. The forces began to move in the direction of Sinai to take up

normal positions.

News agencies reported yesterday that these military movements must have

been the result of a previously well-laid plan. And I say that the sequence of

events determined the plan. We had no plan before May 13, because we believed

Israel would not dare attack an Arab country and that Israel would not have

dared to make such an impertinent statement.

On May 16, we requested the withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency

Force (UNEF) in a letter from Lieutenant General Mahmud Fawzi. We then

requested the complete withdrawal of UNEF.

A big worldwide campaign led by the United States, Britain and Canada

began opposing the withdrawal of UNEF from Egypt. Thus we felt that there were

attempts to turn UNEF into a force serving neoimperialism.

It is obvious that UNEF entered Egypt with our approval and therefore

cannot continue to stay in Egypt except with our approval. Until yesterday, a

great deal was said about UNEF.

A campaign is also being mounted against the United Nations Secretary

General because he made a faithful and honest decision and could not surrender

to the pressure brought to bear upon him by the United States, Britain and

Canada to make UNEF an instrument for implementing imperialism's plans.

It is quite natural--and I say this quite frankly--that had UNEF ignored

its basic mission and turned to achieving the aims of imperialism, we would

have regarded it as a hostile force and forcibly disarmed it. We are definitely

capable of doing such a job.

I say this now not to discredit the UNEF but to those who have

neo-imperialist ideas and who want the United Nations to achieve their aims:

there is not a single nation which truly respects itself and enjoys full

sovereignty which could not accept these methods in any form.

At the same time I say that the UNEF has honorably and faithfully carried

out its duties. And the U.N. Secretary General refused to succumb to pressure.

Thus he issued immediately orders to withdraw. Consequently, we laud the UNEF

which stayed 10 years in our country serving peace.

And when they left--at a time when we found that the neoimperialist forces

wanted to divert them from their basic aim--we gave them a cheerful sendoff and

saluted them.

Our forces are now in the Sinai and we are in a state of complete

mobilization in Gaza and Sinai. We note that there is a great deal of talk

about peace these days. Peace, peace, international peace, international

security, U.N. intervention and so on and so forth, which appears daily in the

press.

Why is it that no one spoke about peace, the United Nations and security

when on May 12 the Israeli Premier and the Israeli commanders made their

statements that they would occupy Damascus, overthrow the Syrian region, strike

vigorously at Syria and occupy part of Syrian territory?

It was obvious that they approved of the statements made by the Israeli

premier and commanders.

There is talk about peace now. What is peace? If there is a true desire

for peace, we say that we also work for peace.

But does peace mean that we should ignore the rights of the Palestinian

people because of the lapse of time? Does peace mean that we should concede our

rights because of the lapse of time? Nowadays they speak about a "U.N. presence

in the region for the sake of peace." Does "U.N. presence in the region for

peace" mean that we should close our eyes to everything?

The United Nations adopted a number of resolutions in favor of the

Palestinian people. Israel implemented none of these resolutions. This brought

no reaction from the United States.

Today U.S. Senators, members of the House of Representatives, the press

and the entire world speak in favor of Israel, of the Jews. But nothing is said

in favor of the Arabs.

The U.N. resolutions which are in favor of the Arabs were not implemented.

What does this mean? No one is speaking in the Arabs' favor. How does the

United Nations stand with regard to the tragedy which has continued since 1958?

The peace talk is heard only when Israel is in danger. But when Arab

rights and the rights of the Palestinian people are lost, no one speaks about

peace, rights or anything.

Therefore it is clear that an alliance prompts the Western powers to give

military equipment to Israel.

Yesterday and the day before yesterday the entire world was speaking about

Sharm el Sheikh, navigation in the Gulf of Aqaba, the Elath port. This morning

I heard the B.B.C. say that in 1956 Abdel Nasser pledged to open the Gulf of

Aqaba.

Of course, this is not true. It was copied from a British paper called the

Daily Mail. No such thing happened. Abdel Nasser would never forfeit U.A.R.

right. As I said, we would never give away a grain of sand from our soil or our

country.

The armed forces responsibility is now yours. The armed forces yesterday

occupied Sharm el Sheikh. What is the meaning of the armed forces occupation of

Sharm el Sheikh? It is an affirmation of our rights and our sovereignty over

the Aqaba Gulf. The Aqaba Gulf constitutes our Egyptian territorial waters.

Under no circumstances will we allow the Israeli flag to pass through the Aqaba

Gulf.

The Jews threatened war. we tell them: You are welcome, we are ready for

war. Our armed forces and all our people are ready for war, but under no

circumstances will we abandon any of our rights. This water is ours.

War might be an opportunity for the Jews--for Israel and [Chief of Staff,

Major Gen. Yitzhak] Rabin--to test their forces against ours and to see that

what they wrote about the 1956 battle and the occupation of Sinai was all a lot

of nonsense.

Of course there is imperialism, Israel and reaction. Reaction casts doubt

on everything, and so does the Islamic Alliance.

We all know that the Islamic Alliance is now represented by three states:

the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Jordan, and Iran. They are saying

that the purpose of the Islamic Alliance is to unite the Moslems against

Israel.

I would like the Islamic Alliance to serve the Palestine question in only

one way: by preventing the supply of oil to Israel. The oil which now reaches

Israel through Elath comes from one of the Islamic Alliance States. It goes to

Elath from Iran.

Who is supplying Israel with oil? The Islamic Alliance--Iran, an Islamic

Alliance state.

Such is the Islamic Alliance. It is an imperialist Alliance, and this

means it sides with Zionism because Zionism is the main ally of imperialism.

The Arab world, which is now mobilized to the highest degree, knows all

this. It knows how to deal with the imperialist agents, the allies of Zionism

and the fifth column. They say they want to coordinate their plans with us. We

cannot at all coordinate our plans with the Islamic Alliance members because it

would mean giving our plans to the Jews and to Israel.

This is a serious battle. When we said we were ready for the battle, we

meant that we would indeed fight if Syria or any other Arab state was subjected

to aggression.

The armed forces are now everywhere. The army and all the forces are now

mobilized , and so are the people. They are all behind you, praying for you

day and night and feeling that you are the pride of their nation, of the Arab

nation. This is the feeling of the Arab people in Egypt and outside Egypt. We

are confident that you are not scared by imperialist, Zionist or reactionary

campaigns.

We are independent, and we know the taste of freedom. We have built a

strong national army and achieved our objectives. We are building our country.

There is currently a propaganda campaign, a psychological campaign and a

campaign of doubt against us. We leave all this behind us and follow the course

of duty and victory.

May God be with you!