NEW DELHI: As the world grapples with the Strait of Hormuz crisis, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday drew parallels with the 1956 Suez Canal crisis, highlighting how India’s then-UN envoy, VK Krishna Menon, played a central role in the diplomatic efforts to resolve it.Menon later served as India’s defence minister but resigned after the 1962 China war debacle.
“The world is grappling with the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Seventy years ago, it faced what is known as the Suez crisis,” Ramesh posted on X.“On July 26, 1956, President Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal. This created a huge furore in the West, and war clouds loomed. The man at the centre of the diplomatic effort to resolve the crisis was none other than VK Krishna Menon. He succeeded admirably, but only for a while,” he added.
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Ramesh recalled that on October 29, the UK, France, and Israel launched an invasion of Egypt, which had to be aborted within days following intervention by a “furious” US President Dwight Eisenhower.“Ironically, this was the same man who three years earlier had approved the joint US-UK operation to overthrow the democratically elected PM of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddegh, who had nationalised the oil industry there,” the Rajya Sabha MP observed, referring to Eisenhower.After the Egyptian invasion was halted, the UN Emergency Force remained stationed along the Sinai and Gaza borders until early June 1967. “This Force, drawn from ten countries including India, was active till 1967. Its commander from December 1959 to January 1964 was Lt. Gen PS Gyani, and from January 1966 to June 1967, Maj. Gen Inder Jit Rikye led it,” he stated.He further pointed out that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru himself had addressed the Indian contingent at the Gaza Strip on May 20, 1960. The six-day war immediately followed the departure of the UN Emergency Force.Ramesh also shared photographs of Menon with Nasser, Antony Eden, and Selwyn Lloyd during the hectic diplomatic efforts.The recollections come as the world contends with the Hormuz Strait crisis. Amid fears of a global energy crunch, only a few ships have passed through the vital waterway, through which a 20% of the world’s oil normally travels. Iranian strikes on commercial vessels have slowed shipping to a trickle, sharply increasing oil prices and pressuring Washington to act to ease the strain on consumers and the global economy.Iran has effectively blocked the waterway in retaliation to the US-Israeli strikes which triggered the current Middle East crisis.
