In the Direction of the Gulf: The Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf

180 Pages·1977·3.339 MB·English

by  Mordechai Abir, Aryeh Yodfat

IN THE DIRECTION OF THE PERSIAN GULF
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IN THE DIRECTION
OF THE
PERSIAN GULF
The Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf
A. Yodfat
and
M. Abir
~~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1977 in Great Britain and in the United States of America by
FRANK CASS AND COMPANY LIMITED
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright© 1977 A. Yodfat & M. Abir
ISBN 978-0-714-63071-7
ISBN 978-1-315-034 72-0 ( eiSBN)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re
produced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Contents
Foreword xi
Chapter I Oil: The USSR and the Persian Gulf I
Chapter II Russia and the Middle East 21
Chapter III Soviet Regime-First Stages (1917-1947) 28
Chapter IV Limited Soviet Successes (1940--late 1950s) 34
Chapter V The Breakthrough (late 1950s-1967) 46
Chapter VI Anticipating a Vacuum in the Gulf(I967-1971) 59
Chapter VII 'In the Direction of the Persian Gulf' (1972-1976) 77
Chapter VIII South Yemen-The Cuba of the Middle East 103
Chapter IX Power Rivalry in the Indian Ocean 117
Chapter X Trends and Considerations 124
Appendices: 1. Soviet-Iraqi Treaty 135
2. Soviet-Somali Treaty 139
Notes 143
Bibliography 154
Index 159
Maps
I. West Siberia and Soviet Oil and Gas Plans xii
2. The Persian Gulf 47
3. People's Democratic Republic ofYemen 104
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Abbreviations
ARAMCO Arabian-American Oil Company
ASU Arab Socialist Union (Egypt, Iraq)
cc
Central Committee
CENTO Central Treaty Organization
CIA Central Intelligence Agency (USA)
CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
CP Communist Party
CPR Chinese People's Republic
CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union
DPK Democratic Party ofKurdistan
ELF Eritrean Liberation Front
GDR German Democratic Republic
GRU Glavnoe Razvedovatel'noe Upravlenie, Main(Military)
Intelligence Directorate (USSR)
ICP Iraqi Communist Party
INOC Iraqi National Oil Company
IPC Iraq Petroleum Company
KGB Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, Committee
for State Security (USSR)
ME Middle East
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NF National Front, see: NLF
NLF National Liberation Front (PDRY)
OAPEC Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-
ment
OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
PDRY People's Democratic Republic ofthe Yemen
PFLO Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman
PFLOAG Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the
Arabian (Persian) Gulf
viii IN THE DIRECTION OF THE PERSIAN GULF
PLF Popular Liberation Front, see: PFLOAG
PRSY People's Republic of South Yemen
RAF Royal Air Force (Britain)
TASS Telegraph Agency ofthe Soviet Union
UAE Union of Arab Emirates
UAR United Arab Republic (Egypt)
YAR Yemen Arab Republic
The German Ambassador in Moscow, Count von der
Schulenburg, reported that in their conversation on
November 26, 1940, Molotov had said that the Soviet
Government was prepared 'to accept the draft of the Four
Power Pact ... Provided that the area south ofBatum and
Baku in the general direction of the Persian Gulf is
recognized as the centre of the aspirations of the Soviet
Union'.
Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office