Page "Gamal Abdel Nasser" Paragraph 85

In early 1967, Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin sent Nasser a warning through Sadat, who was visiting Moscow, that Israel was about to carry out a large-scale assault against Syria.

More warnings followed in the next few months, and King Hussein, aware of the intelligence situation, cautioned Nasser in April not to be dragged into a war.

That same month, pressure on him to act by Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the PLO, as well as the general Arab populace, mounted after an aerial battle between Syria and Israel resulted in the downing of six Syrian planes.

Convinced that Israel was determined to attack Syria, he asked UN Secretary-General U Thant to withdraw UNEF forces from Sinai.

On 23 May, Egyptian troops moved into Sharm el-Sheikh and Nasser ordered the Straits of Tiran closed to Israeli shipping.

On 27 May he stated " Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.

The Arab people want to fight.

" After the blockade, he gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on 29 May saying, " the issue was not UNEF or closing the Strait of Tiran ; the issue is the rights of the Palestinian people.

" This was the same message delivered a week earlier during a visit to an air base in the Sinai.

The speeches signaled that Nasser believed war was inevitable.