Sabri, Ali

Military career and the 1952 Revolution

Ali Sabri was born on August 31, 1920 in Cairo in the Turkish - Circassian family of a large government official Abbas-Baliga Sabri. On the maternal side, he was the grandson of Amin Shamsi-pasha, the closest associate of Ahmed Orabi and nephew of the pasha ^[1] Ali Shamsi, one of the founders of the Wafd party. He grew up and was educated in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. In 1940 he graduated from the Air Force Academy. He served in the Egyptian army as a military pilot, participated in the Palestinian War ^[2] . Since 1948, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he headed the intelligence service of the Egyptian Air Force ^[1] . Sabri sympathized with the Free Officers organization, but did not join it. He provided communication between G. A. Nasser personally and military attaches at the US Embassy in Cairo. Since 1949, Sabri simultaneously taught at the Air Force Academy and held posts at the Egyptian Air Force Headquarters. However, he took some part in the July 1952 revolution . On July 23, 1952, Lt. Col. Ali Sabri was summoned to the residence of the High Command. But on the way to the residence he was detained in the Heliopolis region (a suburb of Cairo Misr al-Jidida) by revolutionary artillery officers and was missed only after they had contacted the High Command ^[3] . Upon his arrival at the residence, Nasser instructed him to inform the US embassy in Cairo about the change of power, as he maintained friendly relations with the US air-attache. Sabri immediately contacted the US embassy by telephone. ^[4] He fulfilled his mission, but in the USA everything was already learned from the morning papers.

Starring

After the revolution, Sabri continued to maintain communication between the revolutionary leadership and the United States, while becoming the secretary of the Free Officers group of the Air Force. However, he did not enter either the first or second (since August 15 ) composition of the Revolution Management Council (SRR) . When the United States notified him that they would not approve the appointment of the Chairman of the State Council, Abd al-Razek al-Sanhuri, as prime minister, Sabri announced this on September 7 at a meeting of the RAF, where he was invited as the leader of the Free Officers in the Air Force. Based on his information, Gamal Salem rejected the candidacy of Sanhuri ^[5] .

In November 1952, Sabri, along with Colonel Hassan Al-Faklavi, was sent to the United States at the head of the acceptance committee to ensure supplies of weapons for the army of Egypt in the amount of $ 100 million. Initially, he said that negotiations were proceeding successfully and even demanded that Egypt’s aerodromes be urgently reconstructed to receive jet fighters. However, after spending several months in Washington and leading negotiations at the Pentagon , Sabri did not achieve results, as the United States linked weapons supplies to the accession of Egypt to military blocs ^[6] . In 1953, he was appointed head of the political office of the first president of Egypt, Mohammed Nagib ^[7] .

Ali Sabri Rise

The impetus for Lieutenant Colonel Ali Sabri's sharp career takeoff was the conflict among the Free Officers. During the political crisis of February 26, 1954, Ali Sabri, together with Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force Vagih Abaza, flew military aircraft in support of Gamal Abdel Nasser ^[8] . This strengthened the credibility of the de facto ruler of Egypt, who appointed Sabri to the important post of director of the cabinet of the commander-in-chief ^{[9] [note 1]} . It was Sabri that February night of 1955 reported to Nasser by telephone about an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip ^[10] . In April 1955, Sabri with the rank of lieutenant colonel was appointed director of the cabinet of the president of Egypt. On the same days, he became one of five members of the Egyptian delegation to the Conference of Afro-Asian countries in Bandung on April 18-24, 1955 . On this trip ( April 9 - May 2 ) he, along with Nasser, visited Pakistan , India , Indonesia and Afghanistan ^[11] .

In 1956 - 1957, Ali Sabri was a political advisor to President Nasser ^[2] . In August 1956, he was sent by Nasser to London to prepare the Conference of 24 States users of the Suez Canal on August 16 - 22 and to explain the position of Egypt ^[12] . In 1956-1957, he also headed the Egyptian General Intelligence Service ( Mukhabarat ) as director, being deputy minister of internal affairs. Received in 1957 an appointment as Minister of State, Sabri retained control over general intelligence, whose head was Colonel Salah Nasr ^[13] . In 1957, he was elected to the National Assembly, and in 1958 he became a member of the Supreme Executive Committee of the ruling party, the National Union ^[7] .

In May 1958, Sabri accompanied Nasser on his trip to the Soviet Union . In 1959, he left the post of director of the cabinet of the president of Egypt ^[9] and in 1960–1962 served as minister for the affairs of the presidency of the United Arab Republic ^[2] , participated in the Conference of Non-Aligned Countries in Belgrade in 1961 .

Head of the Egyptian Government

On September 29, 1962 , a year after the collapse of the United Arab Republic, President Nasser appointed Minister for Presidency Ali Sabri as Chairman of the UAR Executive Council - head of the Egyptian government ^[9] . At the same time, Nasser instructed him to lead the work on the creation of the ruling party - the Arab Socialist Union (ACC) and introduced him to the High Executive Committee of the ACC. As head of government, Sabri was actively involved in international affairs. In January 1963, he, along with the Prime Minister of Ceylon Sarimavo Bandaranaike and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ghana, William Ofori-Atta participated in the Delhi negotiations on resolving the conflict between India and China ^[14] .

On March 26, 1964, after the adoption of the new interim constitution of the country, Ali Sabri, by presidential decree Nasser, was appointed Prime Minister of the United Arab Republic. He visited the USSR in April 1963 and from September 15 to 23, 1964 ^[15] , led the preparation of the Second Five-Year Plan (1965-1970), and in May 1964 participated in the talks between Nasser and N. S. Khrushchev in Cairo.

On September 29, 1965, Ali Sabri filed with Nasser a request for the resignation of his government. The Egyptian press wrote that the country is entering a "new phase of the revolutionary upsurge" and this resignation is intended to serve broad political change. Sabri was given the task of forming the governing structures of the ruling party, which he was to lead

Vice President

On October 1, 1965, Nasser by decree appointed Sabri the vice-president of the UAR and in the same month he headed the newly created General Secretariat of the ACC. Until 1968, Sabri was General Secretary and member of the High Executive Committee of the Arab Socialist Union ^[2] . He led the creation in the ACC of the secret political organization Avangard of the Socialists , the formation of which was completed in April 1966 .

In May 1966, Sabri took advantage of the assassination in Kamshishe of an ASS activist Salah Hussein ( April 30, 1966 ) to strengthen the position of the Arab Socialist Union. He accused the local government authorities of concealing this crime and made the transfer of the investigation under the control of the party. After that, the campaign started by Nasser to uncover a whole series of such killings, as well as facts of sabotage and concealment of land subject to expropriation, began. The ACC organized labor and peasant demonstrations everywhere, and an active propaganda campaign was launched in the country ^[16] . Sabri sought to subordinate the bureaucracy, social movements, trade unions and syndicates to the control of the ACC. On June 19, 1967, he entered the new cabinet of Nasser, combining the posts of vice-president, deputy prime minister and minister for local administration (in 1968, Hamdi Ashur replaced him as minister) ^[17] . It was claimed that in the same 1967, the conspirators led by Marshal Amer put Sabri in the lists of persons to be arrested at the time of seizing power ^[13] .

March 20, 1968, Ali Sabri left the post of vice-president and later held a number of ministerial posts ^[2] .

Controversy with Zakaria Mokhi ed-Din's group

Ali Sabri acted as a supporter of a planned economy and union with the USSR, spoke out against the "bourgeois rebirth" of the Egyptian state elite ^[2] . On the other hand, Vice President Zakaria Mohi ed-Din opposed the intervention of the ruling party in economic matters. He called for "separating economics from politics." Mohi al-Din was actively supported by the Minister of Planning Abdel Moneim Qaisuni, in whose ministry pro-Western economists were concentrated, as well as the Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Hassan Abbas Zaki. Sabri criticized Mohi al-Din and his supporters, who were called "neo-capitalists." On April 22 - 26, 1967, in the five editions of the newspaper “ Al-Ahram ”, the talk of the ACC Secretary General Ali Sabri was published with the editor of the newspaper. Sabri claimed:

The confrontation between Sabri and Mohi ed-Din intensified after the defeat of Egypt in the Six-Day War , when the so-called “Neo-capitalists” called the main reason for the defeat the “socialist tendency”. Attempts by Nasser to bring the two groups closer did not produce results, and the president himself did not accept the proposals of the Mohi al-Din group to solve economic problems by restoring market relations and reorienting to the United States. Both Sabri and Mohi ed-Din were dismissed one day as vice-presidents, but by the end of 1968, the line Ali Sabri won and Zakaria Mohi ed-Din left politics ^[19] .

After this, Ali Sabri's trips to the USSR became frequent. In June 1969, he visited Moscow on the party line as a member of the High Executive Committee of the ESS ^[20] , in April 1970 headed the Egyptian delegation at the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of V. I. Lenin ^[21] , and after a few months he headed the party UAR government delegation visiting the Soviet Union from December 20 to 26, 1970 ^[22]

In 1970, Ali Sabri was promoted to Marshal of Aviation ^[2] .

Power Fight

The unexpected death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser on September 28, 1970, caused uncertainty in the political life of Egypt, which lost its charismatic leader. Formally, Vice President Anwar Sadat , who did not have a serious political weight, could claim the presidency, while the real levers of power were in the hands of leaders grouped around Ali Sabri. At Nasser’s funeral on October 1, Anwar Sadat experienced a heart attack, which reinforced the view that he was a temporary figure. Many serious observers determined the term of Sadat’s rule of several months ^[23] . But Ali Sabri himself experienced a heart attack at the funeral of Nasser, and he, unlike Sadat, had no legal rights to the presidency. In addition, Sabri and his supporters did not enjoy particular popularity among the people, although Sabri compensated for this with “enormous efficiency, a great political flair” ^[24] .

On October 3, 1970, the Arab Socialist Union recommended Sadat for the presidency ^[25] . On October 31, 1970, Sadat appointed Marshal Sabri as Vice-President of Egypt ^[2] . However, some researchers saw in this step Sadat a subtle calculation - the appointment was to tie Sabri's hands and prevent the opposition from leading ^[24] .

Meanwhile, Sabri was considered the de facto leader of the regime, he continued to enjoy special influence in the ACC, his supporters occupied key government posts. On his side were the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Shaaraui Gomaa, the Assistant General Secretary Abu Mohsen an-Nur and the Chairman of the National Assembly, Labib Shukeyr. Sabri's supporters also included Defense Minister Mohammed Fawzi, state secretary secretary Sami Sharaf, head of the General Intelligence Directorate Ahmed Kamel, information minister Mohammed Faik, construction minister Mohammed Saad al-Din Zayed ^[13] . However, President Sadat initiated secret investigations against each of the representatives of the “pro-Moscow” or “left-unsafe” ^[24] Sabri group and established personal contact with the commander of the Republican Guard in charge of the Presidential Guard.

By the end of the spring of 1971, the conflict between Sadat and Sabri became open ^[26] . The stumbling block was the question of the unification of Egypt with Syria and Libya into the Federation of Arab Republics , initiated by Sadat without the consent of Ali Sabri. April 21, 1971 at a meeting of the Supreme Executive Committee of the ACC, and then in the Central Committee of the ACC, the Sabri group sharply criticized the policy of Sadat. Apart from Sabri Sami Sharaf, Shaaraui Gomaa, Assistant General Secretary Abu Muhsen An Noor and National Assembly Chairman Labib Shukeyr opposed him. On the side of Sadat stood only the Minister of War Mohammed Fawzi ^[24] .

On April 29, in Moscow, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU urgently heard reports on the situation in Egypt. The USSR Ambassador to Egypt V.M. Vinogradov and the Chief Military Adviser V.V. Okunev spoke in favor of relations with Sadat, although they expressed some concerns at his address, and the KGB resident in Cairo, Vadim Kirpichenko criticized Sadat. leadership of the USSR and is preparing a break in relations. After a stormy discussion, the leadership of the USSR did not come to any decision whatsoever and took no action in relation to Egypt ^[27] .

May defeat

On May 1, 1971, in Helwan, Sadat delivered a traditional May Day speech in which he declared certain “centers of power” that threaten the regime. In the evening of the same day, he announced the imminent resignation of Ali Sabri. With the assistance of the conservative chief of the General Staff Mohammed Sadek Sadat held secret talks with army officers, as well as the presidential guard and intelligence services. On May 2, Sadat removed Sabri from his post as vice president. On May 3, Sabri sent a letter of resignation from his party posts to the Secretary-General of the Arab Socialist Union, Abu al-Nuru. He wrote: “Anyone who wants to express his opinion with complete frankness is considered as an opponent of the interests of the nation, if his opinion disagrees with the opinion of the President of the Republic, and for this he is punished. Since I have been elected to the ACC Central Committee membership, I intend to refer the question of my resignation from this post to the next meeting of the Central Committee. ”

Events continued to evolve.

As Sadat stated in his memoirs, on May 11, a young policeman brought a tape-recording tape to the President, indicating that Sabri was preparing for his overthrow ^[28] . On May 13, 1971, Cairo’s radio unexpectedly for President Sadat reported that Sharawi Gomaa resigned from his post as deputy prime minister and minister of internal affairs. This was followed by the resignation of State Minister Sami Sharaf, Mohammed Faek, Saad Zaid, Hilmi Said, Assistant Secretary General Abu Mohsen al-Nour, Chairman of the National Assembly Labib Shukeyr, Member of the VIC ASS Diya al-Din Daud and War Minister Mohammed Fawzi. In total, 5 ministers and three members of the ACC Supreme Executive Committee resigned. Hoping to put Sadat at a dead end, they departed to their residences to rest from the May heat. But on May 14, by order of Sadat, the Republican Guard, without meeting any resistance, arrested Ali Sabri and his supporters ^[29] . Sabri was removed from all his positions and was deprived of the rank of marshal. The coup on May 13-15 after some time received in Egypt the official name of the "May correctional revolution."

Academician Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov assessed these events in Egypt as follows:

“Sadat became president, but the real power — the army, the Ministry of the Interior, intelligence, the Arab Socialist Union (ACC), the secret organization Avant-garde of Socialists within the ACC — all this remained at the beginning not under the control of Sadat. But only at first. The predictions regarding the “intermediateness” of Sadat’s figure, near which there were those in whose hands real power was concentrated at that time — Ali Sabri, Shaaraui Gomaa, General Fawzi, Sami Sharaf, and others — did not materialize. Such a phenomenon as traditional, from the time of the pharaohs, worship in Egypt before a person who occupies a higher position in the hierarchy of state power has had an effect. Of course, the personality of Sadat himself also played a role. He turned out to be a good tactician, purposeful and cunning politician ” ^[23] .

L. G. Knyazev wrote:

“The fall of Ali Sabri did not lead to any serious consequences. His grouping showed itself only as a major bureaucratic force, very politically weak. Only the organizations of the ACC of Cairo and Giza made a call for the unity of the left forces, for attracting the masses to defend the Nazer conquests. However, this appeal was rejected by the tip of the left nasistrov, who ultimately preferred this method of action as conspiracy. According to F. Matara and L. Kholi, it seemed that both sides seemed to have concluded a gentlemen’s agreement - to confine themselves to a palace coup, without involving the masses of people in their struggle ” ^[24] .

August 28, 1971 in the suburb of Cairo Heliopolis began the trial of the Sabri group, which was accused of conspiracy against Sadat. 91 people were convicted, including Sabri, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Sh. Gomaa, War Minister M. Fawzi, Assistant Secretary General A. M. Abu al-Nour and others. An indictment was read. The hearing was postponed until September 4 due to the need for additional study of materials by the defense of the accused.

On December 10, 1971, the tribunal sentenced Ali Sabri to death, which Sadat immediately replaced with life-long hard labor ^[30] . After some time, the period was reduced to 25 years in prison.

In 1981, Ali Sabri was granted amnesty by Anwar Sadat shortly before the murder of the latter at a parade on October 6.

Ali Sabri died on 3 August 1991 in Cairo from a heart attack .

Ali Sabri had three brothers and a sister. In his youth, he was fond of tennis and swimming.

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