In 1951, Egypt's Wafdist government, led by Prime Minister Nahhas Pasha, decided to unilaterally abrogate the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, a move which the United Kingdom deemed illegal and refused to recognize. As a result, confrontation erupted in the Suez Canal zone between Egypt's police and "fedayeen" on the one hand, and British military forces on the other hand. As a sign of protest, the Egyptian Council of Ministers decided to recall Amr from London on 11 December 1951. Amr was appointed on 25 December as the king's special advisor for foreign affairs, while keeping his original post of ambassador. After the outbreak of the devastating Cairo Fire of 26 January 1952—which remains unexplained to this day—, there were numerous conspiracy theories regarding the identity of the perpetrators. Some such as newspaper "Al-Masri" defended the idea that the fire was started by King Farouk, and accused Amr Pasha and the British Embassy of being part of the plot. According to this view, the appointment of Amr as the king's special advisor only a month prior to the fire's breakout, as well as the selection of Hafez Pasha Afifi, another pro-British official, as chief of the royal cabinet, were measures aimed at undermining the nationalist Wafd government. Supporters of this conspiracy theory allege that Amr and Afifi served as intermediaries between the King and the British in their joint planning of the fire.