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Fri Dec 1, 2006 10:08 AM GMT LONDON (Reuters) - Britain made secret plans to cut off the flow of the Nile to undermine Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser weeks before the Suez crisis in 1956, according to papers released for the first time on Friday.
British military chiefs hoped to cripple Egypt's economy and pile pressure on Nasser after he nationalised the Suez Canal, the strategic link between the Mediterranean and Red Sea.
Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden asked to see the plan six weeks before British and French troops, secretly in league with Israel, failed to retake the canal.
The Ministry of Defence in London said the plan would hit Egypt's rice and cotton crops, but not cause famine.
"Any suggestion of restrictions on the flow of the Nile would have a strong psychological effect," says the unsigned defence ministry paper, stamped "Top Secret".
Britain dropped the plan because it would break international agreements, spark a violent backlash and damage British colonies on the Nile.
Weeks after Eden read the proposal, British troops took part in the failed bid to retake the canal. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower opposed the invasion and the United Nations ordered a humiliating withdrawal.
The crisis changed the balance of power in the Middle East and underlined the decline of British and French influence in the region.
The Nile plans, released at the National Archives in London, proposed stemming the flow at the Owen Falls Dam in Uganda.
One British official, John Hunt, noted: "It might be possible to spread the word among the more illiterate Egyptians that 'unless Nasser climbs down, Britain will cut off the Nile.'"
But there would be "serious repercussions" in Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika, including flooding and power cuts.
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Governments have many many plans designed to cover all possible situations. Most of these plans are never used for one reason or the other. For example, the United States has a plan to occupy the Iranian oil fields should a wider conflict break out in the middle east. There is a 40% chance of that happening but the plan is there nonetheless just in case.
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