Suez Canal Nationalised

The Egyptian President, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, announced that he would nationalise the Suez Canal and its operating company. This was retaliation for the US and British governments reneging on their agreement to provide finances for the construction of the Aswan Dam. The West relied on the Suez Canal as the main supply route for oil bound for Britain and France. Any threats to close the canal represented an economic threat to British and French interests. Following a series of conferences, diplomatic discussions and a Soviet Union veto of an American proposal for a Suez Canal Users Association, the British and French governments held secret meetings to discuss the recovery of the Suez Canal by military means.