Just days ago, the Arab world was shaken by a seismic political and intellectual event that still reverberates. Its aftershocks are bound to shape discourse for years to come. The catalyst? A rare audio recording featuring two of the region's most iconic figures: Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. The recording dates back to the final weeks before Nasser's death on September 28, 1970, at the age of 52, reportedly from a sudden heart attack shortly after the conclusion of the Arab League Summit in Cairo.
Immediately after its release, Nasserists, Arab nationalists, leftists, and supporters of the so-called "Resistance Axis" rushed to dismiss the recording as a forgery alleging it was produced using artificial intelligence. The content seemed too explosive to be true: the man who had been revered for decades as a quasi-deity by his followers openly renounces his Pan-Arab ideals, admits the futility of war, and calls for a peaceful resolution with Israel.
The final blow to the skeptics came from within the Nasserist camp itself. Abdel Hakim Abdel Nasser, the late president's son, publicly confirmed the recording's authenticity. He even revealed that he had uploaded it himself to a YouTube channel named "Nasser TV" and promised to release additional archival material in the near future.
This revelation raises an unsettling question: how can such historically vital documents
documents that touch the fate of an entire region and nation be left in the private hands of a former leader's family, treated as if they were personal photo albums or notes about pajama colors? These recordings rightfully belong in Egypt's official national archives, not handled as private heirlooms.
Since the authenticity of the recording was confirmed, the debate has been relentless. Some have dismissed it as a moment of personal despair or weakness. Others see it as a belated awakening one that might have altered the course of Arab history had it not been cut short.
Among the most striking moments in Nasser's own voice are statements that reveal a dramatic reversal on the rhetoric of war, and a candid admission of the futility of Pan-Arab slogans and revolutionary bravado:
On his willingness to pursue peace with dignity:
"I'm open to peace… but not surrender. Peace must include withdrawal and guarantees… We have to appear before our people as victors, not as the defeated."
On the impossibility of defeating Israel militarily:
"We can't fight Israel and win that's just empty talk now. This isn't a war anymore; it's something entirely different. Israel isn't alone behind it stands America, and all the powers pulling the strings are there."
On political realism after the defeat:
"Fantasy is one thing, politics is another… Grand rhetoric doesn't feed people. What matters now is to protect the country, not waste it on slogans."
On the need for indirect negotiations:
"We can't tell the people we're negotiating. But we can have someone speak on our behalf… So we look like we've stayed firm in the public eye."
On his personal view of the next confrontation:
"I believe the next warif it happens will end in Israel's favor, not ours. I don't want to deceive myself or the people."
On Arab Leaders and Their Positions:
"Most Arab leaders work on themselves, not for the nation… each one wants to be the sole leader, even if the people are starving. Palestine? Others? Doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the throne."
At this point, it's important to pause and acknowledge a fact little known to many: despite his widespread popularity among the Arab masses, Gamal Abdel Nasser had tense often openly hostile relationships with most Arab leaders. A few examples illustrate this reality:
He had fierce disagreements with King Hussein of Jordan, culminating in mutual accusations of betrayal after the catastrophic defeat of 1967.
His animosity with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia deepened during the Yemeni civil war, as Nasser supported the republicans while the Saudis backed the royalists.
His relationship with Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba was icy and adversarial, especially after Bourguiba's infamous 1965 Jericho speech in which he called for "recognizing Israel and negotiating with it," arguing that political realism demanded such a step. Nasser, outraged, denounced him as a traitor.
He also clashed with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, despite pan-Arab slogans, due to conflicting nationalist ambitions.
His Ironic Assessment of His Position And the Arabs' After Defeat:
"We've become the peaceful solution people… meaning the defeatists. Just leave us alone already."
Although Nasser officially assumed power in 1956 following a public referendum, he had been de facto ruler since 1954, after toppling Mohamed Naguib. His political legacy was steeped in fiery speeches, anti-Western and anti-Israeli slogans, and grandiose rhetoric that paved the way for decades of hollow resistance discourse throughout the Arab world.
He turned phrases like:
"What was taken by force can only be restored by force,"
"We will never negotiate with Israel,"
"We shall return to Jerusalem,"
into quasi-sacred texts etched into the collective consciousness immune to scrutiny or revision. He was also one of the chief architects behind the infamous "Three No's" of the Khartoum Arab League Summit in August 1967:
No peace with Israel,
No negotiations with Israel,
No recognition of Israel.
But the newly uncovered audio recording shatters this entire legacy. In his own voice, Nasser dismantles the foundation of his political immaturity, admitting that all the grand slogans he championed produced nothing but a broken state that lost its regional leadership. One need only recall that the name "United Arab Republic," adopted under Nasser, remained Egypt's official designation even after the union with Syria collapsed in 1961, lasting until 1971 ten years after the union had effectively ended.
On the Rogers Plan:
The recording definitively confirms that Nasser had secretly accepted U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers' 1970 initiative, which aimed to establish a ceasefire between Egypt and Israel as a prelude to a political settlement. The plan called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel. Though it was publicly rejected by hardline rejectionists, Nasser had privately agreed and now the recording verifies it.
This revelation triggered a political earthquake not just because it exposes a delayed realization by a man whose name was synonymous with defiance, empty slogans, and confrontational bravado but because it shows that in his final moments, he understood that politics is not about shouting. That chanting alone does not build nations.
One of the most striking points that caught my attention in the recording was Nasser's obsessive insistence on suppressing public awareness, deceiving the masses, whitewashing failures, and dressing them up as heroic acts solely to preserve his image and status.
As if, throughout his entire life, he had never heard of society's sacred right to knowledge and accountability!
A final word to the supporters of the so-called "Resistance Camp," those entrenched in fortresses of hatred toward Israel and blind hostility:
Isn't it time for a moment of introspection, for honest self-examination, and for abandoning the worship of zero as a sacred number?
Mohamed Saad Khiralla is a political analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and Islamist movements, an opinion writer and member of PEN Sweden.
