From the 1956 Suez Crisis to the 2026 Iran war: Is the era of US primacy in the Middle East coming to an end?
The National · Marwa Maziad ·
If so, the region’s countries have a chance to create a more sustainable geopolital order
Seventy years after a ceasefire ended the France-Britain-Israel tripartite aggression on Egypt, the Middle East finds itself confronting another historical turning point.
The 1956 Suez Crisis marked more than the decline of British and French imperial power. It exposed the limits of military force, demonstrated the power of political legitimacy and accelerated the emergence of the US as the principal external power shaping the regional order. Today, however, that American predominance is itself under pressure. The question is not simply who might replace Washington, but whether the region can finally move beyond the recurring cycle of external domination and competing regional hegemonies.
The crisis began in July 1956, when then-Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company after the US and Britain withdrew their promised financing for the Aswan High Dam, asserting Egypt’s economic sovereignty and independence from European colonial control. After three months of diplomatic confrontation, Israel invaded Sinai in October under a secret arrangement with Britain and France, whose subsequent military intervention turned the canal dispute into a co-ordinated assault on Egyptian sovereignty.
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