Middle East Enmities

Report Outline
Sources of Tension in the Middle East
Emergence of Independent Arab States
Strains on Unity in the Arab World

Sources of Tension in the Middle East

The visit of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to the United States, June 20 to 30, once more focused American attention on one of the world's perennial trouble spots, the Middle East. The always simmering political caldron of this strategic and oil-rich region again appears in some danger of boiling over. And, as in the past, big-power involvement would be a constant threat if intensive and extensive hostilities developed.

Fighting recently has taken place on four fronts: 1) in the Yemen, where the deposed Royalists have been battling the Republican government; 2) in the neighboring British protectorate of South Arabia, where Egyptian-supported terrorists are waging a campaign against the British and the ruling tribal leaders; 3) in the wide area of Iraq inhabited by rebellious Kurdish tribesmen; and 4) along the Syrian-Jordanian frontiers with Israel.

Furthermore, two major rifts have appeared in the Arab fabric. Differences over policy toward Israel have arisen between the Arabs of countries formerly a part of French North Africa and Arabs of the Middle Eastern nations. A second—and more important—split has appeared between the socialist Arab states led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the conservative Arabstates led by Saudi King Faisal.