Suez Crisis, 1956
The nationalisation of the canal company, the Anglo-French-Israeli intervention, the blockship closure and the UN clearance.
The Suez Crisis of 1956 began with the nationalisation of the Suez Maritime Canal Company by Egyptian Law No. 285 of 1956, signed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser on 26 July 1956. The law transferred the company assets, rights and obligations to the Egyptian state and provided for shareholders to be compensated at the Paris stock exchange value of the shares on the day before the law took effect.
The military phase followed: the Israeli invasion of Sinai on 29 October 1956, an Anglo-French ultimatum, air strikes from 31 October 1956, a parachute assault on Port Said on 5 November 1956, and a ceasefire on 7 November 1956. Egypt blocked the canal with sunken ships, dredgers, other craft and a bridge, and it stayed shut into 1957 while the United Nations Suez Canal Clearance Organization, directed by Lieutenant-General Raymond A. Wheeler from his arrival at Port Said on 18 December 1956, cleared the channel.
The full article will cover the nationalisation instrument and its compensation formula, the diplomacy and the military operations, the clearance and staged reopening, and the compensation settlement agreed at Rome on 29 April 1958 for EGP 28.3 million.