This is an English translation of a speech originally given in Arabic in 1958 by Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and then reprinted in a book published in Cairo.

An officer by training and profession and a participant in the 1952 coup that ended Egypt’s country’s monarchy, Nasser in 1954 became president of Egypt and as such the president of the United Arab Republic (UAR), which was formed with Syria in 1958 and which continued to exist for a decade after Syria left the union in 1961. Having met India’s president Jawahrlal Nehru already in 1954, Nasser began playing an important political role also beyond the Middle East in the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia. His star rose precipitously in 1956, when he nationalized the Suez Canal and when France and Britain had to withdraw their forces from the canal after occupying its northern part in November 1956. Given Egypt’s position in the Middle East and internationally, the US administration was concerned this aggression would play into the hands of its Cold War rival, the Sovet Union. The US forced its NATO allies (and their Israeli colluders) to withdraw—a defeat that Egyptians celebrated as their own anti-imperialist success and that deepened Nasser’s popularity among many Arabs and other decolonizing and postcolonial people.

It was against that background that the Egyptian government further upped its international profile. This now occurred also vis-à-vis Asia and not “only” vis-à-vis Africa, which had been an important arena for the republican regime’s foreign policy from before Bandung. Thus, in 1957 Nasser’s government organized the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference that, analyzed in Reem Abou-el-Fadl’s “Building Egypt’s Afro-Asian Hub” (2019), led to Cairo housing the secretariat of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation. And in early 1958, it held the Afro-Asian Youth Conference. By this time and in the 1960s, Cairo became a key transnational hub for decolonization movements especially from Africa, as Eric Burton has shown in "Hubs of Decolonization. African Liberation Movements and Eastern Connections in Cairo, Accra and Dar es Salaam" (2019).

The text printed here is Nasser's address to the Afro-Asian Youth Conference, which happened to take place a mere day after the Syrian-Egyptian UAR was formally announced.

Report on Israeli military strength and position on the military strength of the other Arab countries.

Document describing a statement on the Suez Canal crisis published by the head of the Pacifists in Lebanon.

Document containing information on the Brotherhood's communication as well as the exodus of Egyptian members of the Brotherhood to other Arab countries, most notably Sa'id Ramadan and a number of Egyptian army officers.

Document describes Muslim Brotherhood and Communist Party activities in early September 1956, and covers the Suez canal crisis, the Algerian rebels, enmity between the Communists and the Brotherhood, Brotherhood camps in Syria, 1956 elections in Jordan, the Russian delegation's trip to Syria, an alliance between the Ba'ath and the Communists, and a rivalry between the Communists and Kamal Jumblat.

This file contains a meeting between Saddam and the members of the Ba'ath Party in all the Arab countries. Saddam talked about the role of the Ba'ath Party in controlling the Islamic current in the whole Islamic world and the Arab countries. He said that it isn't a profitable trend to contend with these currents, but rather to negotiate with them and try to persuade them that it is inevitable and better to separate between religious thought and command. He talked about the current of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. He stressed that this movement must be exploited to be an ally rather than an enemy. This movement and others similar to it must be persuaded to work with the Ba'ath Party and not against it.

Transcript of a meeting between President Saddam Hussein amd Iraqi officials, taking place sometime between 4-20 November 1979. Saddam discusses relations with Europe, Russia, China, the Gulf countries, and the United States. Iraqi officials criticize Libya and Syria for their support to Iran. Another official criticizes the Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat for his attitudes in making peace agreement with Israel. Saddam accuses the Americans of playing a central role in overthrowing the Shah of Iran.