It was sheer coincidence that two days after Egypt celebrated the anniversary of the liberation of Sinai from Israeli occupation and the resultant reopening of the Suez Canal US President Donald Trump took Egyptians and probably also the rest of the world by surprise when he wrote on his social network Truth Social on 26 April that US commercial and Navy vessels should be able to pass through both the Panama and Suez canals for free.
He added that he had US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take up the matter “forthwith” with Egypt and Panama.
For Egyptians, Trump’s comments were nothing short of a bombshell. No doubt Trump is light years away from the history of the Suez Canal and the almost mythical relationship that exists between the Egyptian people and “Al-Canal.” He is also probably not knowledgeable enough about the wars that Egypt has fought to regain and keep the Suez Canal under Egyptian sovereignty.
It might not be a bad idea for someone who has Trump’s ear to show him a video of former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser announcing the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in Alexandria on 26 July 1956, with his announcement being greeted with outbursts of sheer national pride from everyone who heard it.
For the first time since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Egyptian people felt that the canal was theirs and that it was no longer the property of the British or the French who had been running the canal for more than 72 years during the British occupation of Egypt.
Almost three months after the return of the canal to its rightful owners of the Egyptian people, Britain, France, and Israel launched the Tripartite Aggression on 29 October 1956 to retake the canal, overthrow Nasser’s revolutionary regime, and let Israel occupy the Sinai Peninsula.
This did not come to pass, of course, and I am not sure whether Trump is aware that one of his predecessors, former president Dwight Eisenhower, is credited with supporting Egypt in defeating the scheming of what were still two of the most powerful imperialist powers at the time, Britain and France, and allowing them, together with Israel, to dominate Egypt and repossess the Suez Canal.
Eleven years later, another aggression, this time by Israel, led to the Israeli occupation of Sinai and the closing of the canal. It was only reopened on 5 June 1975 after the Egyptian Army had launched a massive military attack in the 6 October War in 1973, crossing the canal and destroying the Israeli defensive line called the Bar Lev. After the completion of this highly fortified defensive line, a former top figure in the Israeli Army had assured the Israelis that it could never be destroyed, not even by a nuclear bomb.
It took the Egyptian Army six hours to cross the canal using five armoured and infantry divisions and to secure the beachheads on the eastern bank of the canal. Once again, as part of a tortuous history of confronting enemies and adversaries from 1869 onwards, the Egyptians had fought and died for the canal and Sinai.
All these wars and huge sacrifices of men and material are inscribed in the collective memory of successive generations of Egyptians. They will remain so forever. The question now is how Egypt should deal with the US request to use the canal for free, should it be presented officially through diplomatic channels?
The first thing is not to overreact, important when considering the reactions of the media. Secondly, the US request to exonerate US vessels, commercial and naval, from fees when crossing the canal should be politely turned down. The US administration must be aware that no Egyptian leader could ever acquiesce to such a demand, as if he did it would seem to us, as independent, free, and proud Egyptians, that our country was reverting to the days of yore when the British ambassador in Cairo could dictate his wishes to an Egyptian monarch.
This happened in February 1942, when Sir Miles Lampson, the then British ambassador, demanded that former King Farouk appoint the late Mustafa Pasha Al-Nahas as prime minister. If he did not, Lampson said, the British would remove the king.
The existence of US military assistance to Egypt, or the lack of it, will not make a difference. Our national pride and the independence of the Suez Canal from any foreign meddling are at stake. This is the least we can do to honour the memories of the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Suez Canal.
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 1 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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