The July 23 Revolution and pacts (19), Verbal war continues, The Egyptian leader Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser lost no opportunity to attack the Baghdad pact with the most vehement direct and indirect terms. In yet, another ‘forged' opportunity, a dinner banquet given in honour of a visiting Lebanese press delegation, he made a passionate plea for Arab nationalism and pan-Arab arrangements. This was reported by The Egyptian Gazette of February 2, 1955 in a front-page story headlined: Premier: We shall never mislead Arabs The Gazette report said: “Prime Minister Gamal Abdul Nasser, in his address at the dinner party given yesterday at the Officers' Club in Zamalek, in honour of the Lebanese press mission said: “I would like to tell you that we shall never mislead or deceive the Arabs, but that we shall work for their interests. Our destiny is the same. God has bound the Arabs with one tie and the Arabs have thus succeeded in overcoming difficulties. “We shall go ahead with the national spirit, and not with a written pact (an obviously sarcastic note belittling the Turco-Iraqi Pact/the author), to demolish servility. Our force lies in our resources, position and nationalism. With our resources we shall go ahead towards real force – the force of the Arabs and Arabism. “When we feel strong, and work for strength, we shall not ask a foreigner to grant us this power, but we shall maintain the liberty for which our grandfathers fought. We say that we do not want strength from a foreigner because it is the foreigner who has deprived us of it (a reference to both the older form of colonialism and neo-imperialism/the author). “We were defeated in Palestine (a reference to Post World War II Western Middle East arrangements leading to the creation of the Jewish state of Israel and the collusion of certain Arab satellite regimes/the author), but we shall never be defeated once again. We shall march side by side with you and hand-in-hand towards strength and dignity. “Premier Abdul Nasser said that what had happened in Egypt was in fact two revolutions which had gone side by side, one political and the other social. [email protected]
