Chapter 963 Let the Queen convince him (first update, please subscribe)
You can only move forward, not backward.
Behind is... London!
In the past few years, the British Empire has been retreating!
Whether it was Fatty Qiu or Aiden, who took over the power of the Prime Minister as his deputy, they tried their best to prevent this, but they only slowed down the process.
After all, Britain's decline after the war was obvious to all. Even when there were troops stationed in Egypt, and when Nasser's Free Officers overthrew the Farouk dynasty, Britain was unable to intervene. After all, the world has always spoken from the side of strength. .
Britain's recession forced them to shrink from the rest of the world. Two years later, in the face of Egypt's request for a complete withdrawal of British troops, Fatty Qiu happened to have a step down, so he readily planned to evacuate most of Egypt in two years.
However, Britain has a bottom line. Not only will Britain not evacuate the strategically important Suez Canal, but it also wants to retain the right to operate it. This is of course rejected by Egypt. Faced with Egypt's rejection, Fatty Qiu's attitude was tough - after all, maintaining connections between Britain and its overseas territories in East Africa and Asia depended largely on the Suez Canal.
So you have to persevere.
Although Britain was in decline, a lean camel was bigger than a horse, and tigers still had some remaining power. Faced with Britain's toughness, Egypt finally compromised, and the management rights of Britain and France were retained.
"Nasser has rejected our request!"
In the Prime Minister's Office at No. 10 Downing Street, Lloyd looked at Prime Minister Eden and said.
“Not only did they refuse to end the arms deal with the Soviet Union, they also made no concessions on the issue of peace with Israel.”
The foreign minister had just ended his negotiations with Egypt. of negotiations.
“So, the negotiations broke down?”
Aiden asked rhetorically.
“Yes, the negotiations have broken down, even when we clearly pointed out the Aswan Dam loan, right?”
“Yes, they had no hesitation at all , Mr. Prime Minister, it seems that for them, the elimination of Israel is the most important thing compared to the dam.”
Lloyd’s tone was full of helplessness. The Aswan Dam is extremely important to Egypt. , although as early as half a century ago, in order to allow Egypt to grow more cotton, the British renovated and built a series of water conservancy projects, including the Aswan High Dam.
It’s just that the dam is very low. Although it was raised several times during the period, it still could not solve the Nile River’s flooding. During the flood ten years ago, the dam almost overflowed. So the Egyptians decided not to tinker with it, but to build a more magnificent high dam upstream of the low dam. At that time, King Farooq I personally went to the construction site and placed the cornerstone on the foundation of the new dam.
However, before construction could begin, the Farouk dynasty was overthrown by the Free Officers organization led by Nasser. Nasser's government urgently needed both funds to change its backward economy and weapons to eliminate Israel.
In order to obtain weapons, after the request for arms assistance from the United States was shelved, Egypt, which was "thirsty for guns," turned to the Soviet Union. The two sides reached an agreement in September last year, and the Soviet Union began to provide arms assistance to Egypt.
After losing one move, the United States and Britain planned to save Egypt by funding the Aswan Dam - expressing their willingness to provide 70 million for the first phase of the Aswan Dam to be built by Nasser. The World Bank also promised a loan of US$200 million.
But this is not a free lunch, provided that Egypt ends its arms trade with the Soviet Union and makes peace with Israel.
After several months of negotiations, Nasser flatly rejected the demands of the United States and Britain.
"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister, weapons are the most important to Nasser. If he wants to become the leader of the Arab world and realize his dream of unifying Arabs, he must eliminate Israel and use Israel as a stepping stone to become an Arab leader!"
Arab world leadership, even a unified Arab, this was Nasser's dream and what Britain had always opposed.
“He is just wishful thinking!”
Aiden said directly.
“The Aswan Dam is related to the bread of the Egyptians. Without funds, everything is a delusion! If the Aswan Dam is shelved, he will have no way to explain it to the Egyptians! By then, the Egyptians will dissatisfaction will force him to make concessions.”
"But, Mr. Prime Minister, he has another choice, that is, the Russians. He can ask for help from the Russians, just like getting weapons from Russia,"
"No, the Russians do not have sufficient funds to support Egypt Building the Aswan Dam requires hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe the Russians can come up with this money in the future, but now, they can’t!”
Ayden’s judgment is accurate. Russia doesn’t have the money now! There was no extra funds to assist Egypt. In fact, in another world, until a few years later, faced with an expenditure of more than one billion rubles, the top Soviet officials debated for a long time on the issue of helping Egypt build the Aswan Dam. Finally, facing the reality of Nasser's status as the leader of the Arab world, the Soviet Union decided to provide loans in order to win over the Arab world.
Now...the Soviet Union really has no money, and Egypt does not have that united front value, at least not yet.
"Then they have only one choice," Lloyd said, looking at the Prime Minister.
“Take back the Suez Canal and use the proceeds from the Suez Canal to build a dam!”
Although this is just a guess, in Lloyd’s view this possibility is very high, after all , for Nasser, he now has no other better choice.
"What? Take back the Suez Canal? Is he crazy?"
The reason why Ayden was so excited was because in his opinion Nasser definitely did not have the guts. To be more precise, , he simply did not believe that the other party would be so ungrateful.
"Mr. Prime Minister, we must consider this possibility. After all, in Nasser's view, Britain has declined to the extreme. Since we can make concessions on the colonies, we can naturally also make concessions on the Suez Canal issue. Concession."
"Making concessions? That is simply wishful thinking. Suez is not a colony, it is our investment. How dare they do that? If we don't respond, then the whole world will think that we think the British Empire is weak and can be bullied."
Aiden took a deep breath and said.
“So no matter what, we will not make any concessions on the issue of the right to operate the Suez Canal. After all, commercial treaties are sacrosanct.”
Although not sure about Nasser Would you do that? But Aiden still felt an unprecedented danger, after all, that guy never played his cards according to common sense.
Thinking of this, Aiden emphasized.
“We must do everything we can to ensure this.”
“But Mr. Prime Minister, we must consider this possibility. For Egypt, this may be their best choice. , if they do this, how should we respond?"
Faced with the reminder from the Foreign Secretary, Ayden fell into silence, and after thinking for a long time, he said.
“If this really happens, then we must respond in the toughest way. If we make concessions on the Suez Canal issue, we are likely to lose all our colonies in the future. .”
After thinking for a while, Aiden continued.
"The French, when the time comes, the French will definitely stand on our side."
The French will definitely stand with them. After all, there are also people on the other side of the Suez Canal. The French had a stake and their interests were aligned, at least on the canal.
"Mr. Prime Minister, what matters is the attitude of the United States and the Soviet Union. What will their attitude be? If they oppose it, how should we deal with it?"
Lloyd A few of De's questions made Aiden think about it for a while, and then he said.
"Nanyang, bring that guy in! The addition of that guy will definitely scare the Soviets."
When he said these words, Aiden laughed almost subconsciously.
He thought about how this guy threw the United Nations Charter into the trash can at the United Nations General Assembly last year.
Faced with such a lunatic, even the Russians can only retreat.
"This seems like a good idea. As we all know, Nanyang is very stubborn. But, Mr. Prime Minister, we all know that although that guy is stubborn, he is also greedy."
Lloyd said looking at the Prime Minister.
“If we want him to participate, what kind of benefits should we give him? If there are not enough benefits, he will definitely not participate. He is different from people. France is in There are stocks on the canal, and the French will definitely participate in it. However, there is no benefit there, and his participation in this case is almost impossible."
The world has never been realistic. If there is no benefit, no one will take chestnuts from the fire for other countries.
Aiden knows this very well. After all, this world always puts interests first.
"Invite him to visit the UK and I will convince him. If not, let the Queen come forward to convince him!"
(End of this chapter)