The historic diplomatic gesture by the Moroccan monarch in 1979 made the prince the first male member of his family’s direct line to return to Egypt since the 1952 revolution.
Prince Mohamed Ali Farouk, grandson of Egypt’s last king, has returned to live in Cairo, expressing gratitude for the late King Hassan II’s crucial intervention that enabled his birth in Egypt during his family’s exile.
“Thanks to King Hassan II’s support, who intervened with President Sadat, my mother Fadila was authorized to give birth in Cairo,” the 46-year-old prince told AFP in French during a recent interview.
This diplomatic gesture in 1979 made him the first male member of the royal family’s direct line to return to Egypt since the 1952 revolution.
The prince, who now holds an Egyptian passport granted in 2020, is establishing himself in Cairo after years of living abroad, primarily in France. His return marks a symbolic reconciliation between Egypt’s royalist and republican eras, he notes.
“For my father, Egypt was a lost homeland. For me, it’s a rediscovered one,” says Mohamed Ali, who runs a technical real estate consulting firm in Paris.
His father, Fouad II, became king at just seven months old following King Farouk’s abdication in 1952, ruling briefly with a regency council until the monarchy’s abolition in 1953.
The prince’s return to Cairo was encouraged by his wife, Princess Noal Zaher of Afghanistan’s royal family.
“It was Noal who supported me throughout my reflection. She wanted to live in the Orient and wanted our children to grow up closer to their roots,” he reveals.
From dinner table tension to military threats: The Hassan II-Nasser years
The prince’s gratitude toward King Hassan II stems from a layered history of antagonism between Morocco and Egypt’s leadership.
Their relationship was marked by confrontations that began at a diplomatic dinner and escalated to military threats, according to French diplomatic archives.
The first spark ignited in the late 1950s when Hassan II, then Crown Prince, observed President Nasser struggling with cutlery at a state dinner in Morocco.
“I don’t think eating turkey with a fork is harder than overthrowing King Farouk,” the future monarch remarked, referencing Nasser’s revolution – a comment that set the tone for years of strained relations.
The tension reached its peak during the 1963 Sand War between Morocco and Algeria, when Nasser deployed approximately 2,000 Egyptian troops to support Algeria against Morocco.
Among them was future Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, then a military officer, who was captured by Moroccan forces after his aircraft went down within Moroccan territory.
An attempted reconciliation in March 1965, during Hassan II’s visit to Cairo, dramatically backfired. According to French diplomatic documents, what began as a cordial meeting deteriorated into open hostility when Nasser demanded that Morocco sever ties with West Germany over its support for Israel.
Hassan II’s refusal prompted an explicit threat from Nasser, who warned that Arab leaders opposing Egypt’s stance would “be condemned to disappear” and reminded the Moroccan king that Egyptian forces were “at Morocco’s doorstep” through their presence in Algeria.
The meeting so alarmed Hassan II that he immediately ordered his Minister of Defense to implement military precautionary measures upon his return, and put the Royal Armed Forces on high alert against potential “terrorist elements” from Algeria, the diplomatic cables reveal.
Relations improved only after Anwar Sadat and later Hosni Mubarak assumed Egypt’s presidency. However, echoes of past tensions briefly have resurfaced in the early years of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi .
Three incidents particularly stirred concern: Sisi’s early diplomatic visit to Algeria, the appearance of Egyptian media delegations in Tindouf camps, and a controversial photograph of Sisi with Polisario leadership at an African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea.
Egyptian military officials justified these moves as necessary security coordination with Algeria to combat weapons trafficking and address threats in Libya. Egypt has since affirmed its support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Today, Prince Mohamed Ali focuses on rehabilitating his family’s image while disclaiming any political ambitions.
“I simply want to work on rehabilitating the image of my royal family and contribute to preserving and transmitting its historical, cultural, and artistic heritage,” he asserts, noting that “150 years of history deserve to be honored.”
source/content: moroccoworldnews.com (headline edited)\
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