On June 29, 1839 an invading Ottoman army (accompanied by Moltke the Elder) was destroyed in Syria by Mohamed Ali's general Ibrahim Pasha at the Battle of Nezib, putting him in possession of the whole of Syria.
Although the new Sultan's ministers moved to resolve the crisis by offering to cede the rule of Syria to Mehmet, the British, Austrian and Russian ambassadors forced them to rescind this offer and stand firm against him.