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September 26, 1957

Foreign Ministry report on the Hungarian government delegation’s trip in Egypt in 1957 (excerpts)

Strictly confidential!

[…]

Foreign Minister Fawzi said the following during the conversation:

The Egyptian government ordered its UN representative to object to putting the so-called Hungarian problem on the agenda. So, the position of the Egyptian government on this issue is clear. He wants to stress the same by saying that he himself is not going to attend the session of the extraordinary General Assembly, he will only take over the leadership of the Egyptian UN delegation at the opening of the 12th General Assembly.

For extremely selfish reasons, the standpoint of Egypt on this problem is the same as the position of Hungary. Egypt is a small country which is unable to prevent the armed attack of the superpowers. Therefore, they should stick with at least one principle, the principle of non-intervention. And since Egypt would not like to see its internal affairs discussed at an international forum either, they naturally support the Hungarian position.

[…]

On 29 August President Nasser received the Hungarian government delegation at his apartment. After our arrival he suggested we should allow the press to take photos, and we agreed to it. After five minutes of talking about general matters Deputy Minister Szarka began to talk and explained the Hungarian government’s position on the so-called “Hungarian problem”, and then he handed over the memorandum and the confidential documents to the president. He was noticeably strongly impressed by the fact that he was given documents that had not been made public before.

President Nasser said the following: …He did not think it was possible to prevent “the Hungarian problem” from being put on the agenda in the UN. He hoped that now that the Hungarian delegation was also participating in the debate, they would explain and defend their position in detail and make their arguments widely public, since in a case like this the western propaganda often hushes the truth up.

He said they had already given the proper instructions to their UN delegation and they were on our side regarding this issue. He was convinced that the western powers would use the Hungarian problem for propaganda in the UN, especially against the Soviet Union. Why don’t they talk about Jordan, he asked, where the national government was ousted, the nationalists were being prosecuted and the people are being oppressed under martial law? And he immediate made a parallel between the American intervention in Hungary and in the Middle East. He stated that they rely on the support of the enemies of the system, the feudalists and the representatives of religious minorities in Syria as well.

Then he asked which other countries the Hungarian delegation was going to visit. He said we could surely rely on the support of Egypt and Syria. We should try to convince the rest of the Arab countries but the situation with these countries is not that simple. He regards Yemen as a country with an independent Arab policy and maybe they would also support us. As for Libya, he was not sure, since a small country like that did not have any significant influence. Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are under American, Sudan under British influence.

[…]

 

Report on conversations with Egyptian Foreign Minister Fawzi on the recent failed Hungarian Revolution and pressure from Western governments ("the Hungarian Question"). Egypt promised to support Hungary in the United Nations.

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Document Information

Source

MOL Küm, XIX-J-1-j, Egyiptom Tük, 1957. 5.d. 5/b–004399/1. Translated by András Bocz.

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Original Uploaded Date

2015-09-28

Type

Report

Language

Record ID

122509

Original Classification

Strictly Confidential