Egypt, 1958 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
On 5 March 1958, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser announced in a Damascus speech that a plot had been uncovered against the newly formed United Arab Republic, the union of Egypt and Syria established on 1 February 1958. The plot was a Saudi-backed conspiracy, sponsored by King Saud, to assassinate Nasser and break up the UAR through a coup in Syria. On 6 March the UAR intelligence chief Colonel Abdel Hamid Sarraj revealed that Saud had paid him roughly 2 million pounds to place a bomb aboard Nasser's plane, and the government produced checks allegedly given to the plotters; the United States was also implicated and denied involvement.
The foiled plot backfired dramatically: on 24 March 1958 the Saudi royal family stripped King Saud of most of his powers in favor of Crown Prince Faisal. The affair strengthened Nasser's grip on Syria and removed his most powerful conservative Arab rival.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
65103051958
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Nasser survived the plot and the UAR endured until 1961; King Saud lost most of his powers.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
New York Herald Tribune
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →