“Setback 67” sparked a debate between Naguib Sawiris and Mostafa Bakri

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The controversy over the causes of the defeat of June 1967 returned to the forefront, after a debate between the Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris and the journalist and member of the House of Representatives, Mustafa Bakri, regarding responsibility for the defeat, and the role of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the military leadership at that stage.

The debate came against the backdrop of statements made by Bakri during his television program "Facts and Secrets", broadcast on the "Sada El Balad" channel, during which he addressed the responsibility of the political and military leadership for the defeat, based on what he described as the testimony of the late President Mohamed Anwar Sadat, which he said held the military leadership partly responsible for what happened.

On the other hand, Naguib Sawiris responded to Bakri’s statements through his account on the “X” platform, refusing to exclude the responsibility of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser for the defeat, and considering that the political decisions that preceded the war fell within his responsibility as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces at the time.

Sawiris wrote: “The president is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and therefore the political decisions that led to the 1967 war were issued by him, and thus the defeat of 1967 is entirely his responsibility, and your words will not benefit him.”

This response reflects a difference in assessing responsibility for the defeat, between those who focus on the political decisions that preceded the war, and those who emphasize the role of military leadership and the circumstances of managing the battle.

Bakri's talk extended to the War of Attrition, which followed the defeat of 1967, considering that it represented an important stage in rebuilding the Egyptian Armed Forces and raising their combat efficiency, leading up to the October 1973 War.

This phase witnessed efforts to reorganize the Egyptian armed forces and develop their capabilities, in addition to military operations aimed at exhausting the Israeli forces, before Egypt and Syria launched war in October 1973.

It is noteworthy that the June 1967 war broke out between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and ended with Israel occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The defeat was followed by a phase of reorganization of the Egyptian armed forces, which included a war of attrition, leading to the October 1973 War, during which Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and attacked the Israeli fortifications east of the canal.

Evaluating the causes of the June 1967 defeat and the responsibility of the political and military leadership for it is still a present topic in historical and political debates, especially when dealing with the decisions that preceded the war, the performance of the armed forces during it, and the results that resulted from them.