On 4 September 1956, the Council of Western European Union (WEU) meets for a special session on the development of the Suez Crisis. British representative Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick outlines the reasons that led his government, in close consultation with the French Government, to convene this meeting, emphasising the strong spirit of alliance within WEU. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick justifies the urgency of the intervention in the Suez Canal area, maintaining that a refusal to act would result in the total removal of any Western influence on the ‘Arabian continent’. The French Ambassador to London, Jean Chauvel, reaffirms his government’s conclusions, which are completely identical in all respects to those of the British Government on the settlement of the current crisis. He outlines the considerations on which the French Government has based its approach and stresses the fact that the two countries are taking the matter extremely seriously.