• Home
• /
• MENA

Egyptian president nationalizes the Suez Canal

Egypt - Nasser declared his government, throughout taking over the canal, could receive $100 million a year in revenue.

Egypt is seizing the Suez Canal under a nationalization decree, President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced tonight.
Its revenues will be used to build the Aswan High Dam, he said.
Nasser declared his government, throughout taking over the canal, could receive $100 million a year in revenue.
"We don't have to seek American and British aid for building our dam," he said. "We'll build the dam ourselves and with our own money."
The dam has been projected to cost $1,300,000,000.
To wildly cheering thousands packed in Alexandria's Liberation Square, Nasser read this decree:
"In the name of the nation we hereby declare that the International Suez Canal Co. be nationalized. The company with its assets and liabilities will be transferred to the Egyptian state. The present management will be liquidated. Shareholders will be compensated according to the closing prices in the stock exchange.
"The company will be annexed to the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce. The company will have its own budget. All company money in Egypt and abroad will be frozen. Banks and individuals are forbidden to dispose of this money except with the permission from the new Egyptian management. All employees will remain in service. No resignations will be accepted."
In London, Prime Minister Anthony Eden called in the U.S. charge d'affaires and the French ambassador for emergency talks.
The 101-mile canal is operated by the Suez Canal Co., under a concession due to expire in 1968. The company is an Egyptian joint-stock company. The British government holds about 350,000 of its 800,000 shares. Half its board of directors is made of Frenchmen.
British armed forces occupied the Suez Canal for 74 years, but withdrew gradually over the last few years.
_____________________________________________________________________
In July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, marking Egypt's decisive break with its colonial past.
Before that, the canal, built in 1869 by French engineers, had largely been under British and French control. It served as a vital link to ship oil, as well as other goods between British colonies around the world. Nasser made the decision to nationalize the canal to help fund construction of the Aswan Dam, which was completed in 1970 to control the flow of the Nile River.
But Nasser's move angered France and England, and the two, with the help of Israel, invaded and took over the waterway. They ultimately withdrew under diplomatic pressure and Egypt was able to reopen it in March 1957.