The Revolution and pacts (11) ‘An imperialistic alliance'. Egypt's hard position towards the 'aggressive' military alliances established by Britain and the US was repeatedly declared by leading figures of the Egyptian Government. They publicly criticised the Bagdad Pact as an 'imperialistic alliance'. The Egyptian Government's stern position could be explained by the general anti-imperialist mood that then prevailed, a natural consequence of a 73-year-old British occupation of Egypt that had drained the country's resources, cost it hundreds of live as a result of armed resistance and left the country an easy prey to backwardness, a state of affairs that was commonly referred to as the 'Evil Trio: Poverty, Ignorance and Disease'. The Egyptian Gazette of February 17, 1955 reflected that position in a report headlined: Arabs will be warned against imperialistic alliances Appeal to Iraq not to fall into trap The warning and the appeal took on a religious context as it was to be made from the pulpit of one of Cairo's biggest and most frequented mosques and by religious scholars, apparently to give some sort of religiosity to the Government's vehement rejection of the mere notion of imperialistic alliances. The Gazette report said: “A warning to the Arab and Muslim countries against imperialistic foreign alliance pacts will be contained in Friday's sermon prepared by the Ministry of Waqfs which is to be broadcast tomorrow from Sidi el-Imam Abi Abdulla el-Hussein in Cairo. “The sermon will appeal to Iraq to go hand in hand with the Arabs as one bloc instead of falling into the trap of the Turco-Iraqi defence pact set by Western imperialism, especially so since the imperialistic objective has become clear to all Arabs and Muslims throughout the world. “The sermon will be delivered by Sheikh Mohamed Abu Shedida and will be commented upon after prayer by Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim, Director of Mosques, Sheikh Mohamed el-Ghazalt el-Sakka, Gad el-Mula Soliman, Tawfiq el-Halabi, Mohamed el-Ghazaly and Ibrahim el-Dessouqy. That Turco-Iraqi pact was the first treaty between an Arab League country and Turkey. The pact was renewable at the end of the five years. The signatories pledged themselves to refrain from interference in each other's internal affairs and settle disputes between them peacefully and in accordance with the United Nations Charter. Another clause provided for a permanent council to be set up at ministerial level when all four powers become parties to the pact which was open to any state actively concerned in the security of the region. [email protected]
