Maurice Challe In July 1956, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of the Suez Canal, in violation of agreements he had signed with the British and French governments. On 14 October 1956, Challe visited British Prime Minister Anthony Eden at Chequers, accompanied by French Minister of Labor Albert Gazier. The two Frenchmen told Eden of the secret negotiations between Israel and France regarding a proposed Israeli attack on Egypt followed with military occupation by European powers, to control the Suez Canal. Eden backed the plan with UK resources including military forces, directly leading to the Suez Crisis. Challe was a French
Suez 1956, just a few days after the fourth anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Egyptian government under President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, which had been run by the French and owned privately, with the British as the largest shareholders. The Israeli–British–French invasion of Egypt which followed is known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression but elsewhere as the Suez Crisis. Following Israel's invasion and occupation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in the Six-Day War of 1967, the Canal was closed, and did not reopen until 1975. Today, the Canal is a vital link in world