Word: nasser
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Bald Terms. Nasser was plainly more cocky than he had been last fall. There was now no mention of the U.N.'s six principles he had accepted then, in particular the provision that the canal be "insulated from the politics of any nation." Compensation for the old company's stockholders was referred to "arbitration," in which Nasser could be expected to bring counter-claims for war damages. Though there were polite thanks for the U.N.'s help in clearing the canal and promises of "continued cooperation" with users, the plan stated in all but bald terms that...
Once again, Nasser had played his hand with skill. After keeping the canal blocked for months as a lever on Western nations, he had converted its opening into a kind of reverse lever. For shippers were so eager to resume transit that they rushed through without a quibble at his terms. Italian, Greek and West German (as well as Communist) vessels were in the first convoy. The U.S., Britain and France were still "advising" their ships to avoid the canal for the moment while they dickered for better terms...
...though the New York Times called Nasser's terms an "absurd ultimatum," the Western powers seemed to hold out little real hope of extracting any major concessions: they might, in return for making the arrangement two-way instead of unilateral, firm up the contractual status of the agreement. But Nasser no longer faced the threat of armed attack by Britain or France, and Britain's Foreign Office acknowledged privately that any attempt at economic boycott could not be long maintained in the face of bitter opposition from shipping companies watching their competitors steam through the canal...
...Little in Hand. On other issues, Hammarskjold was only slightly more successful. Typically, Hammarskjold tried, in the words of an aide, to convert the disputed passage to the Gulf of Aqaba "from a political to a legal question." He got Nasser's oral agreement to allow the UNEF to remain at Sharm el Sheikh indefinitely while the U.N. seeks an advisory opinion from the World Court as to whether the Gulf of Aqaba is an international waterway, as Israel and the U.S. contend. Nasser reportedly also agreed not to rush Egyptian troops back into Gaza...
Even this makeshift modus operandi had to be found between the lines. In public, Nasser insisted to a group of visiting U.S. editors that both the Suez and Aqaba waterways are in Egyptian territory. The U.S., he said, "is aiming to starve us out, while the Soviet Union is aiming to help us'' with shipments of wheat. "We like to be friendly to the U.S.," but "we will not surrender to American pressure...