Soviet activities in the gulf region

Abstract

1. Definition The designation "Gulf States" is sometimes confined to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - the Eldorado states, according to some people. But I have included Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman and South Yemen in my consideration of the region. 2. Importance Oil which passes from the Gulf supplies 75% of Japanese needs, 65% of Western Europe's and 30% of America's. Interruption of supply can cripple western industry. Increased Soviet naval activities near the Gulf and in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean are seen by many as a threat to the security of oil supplies. Soviet attempt to gain control of northern Iran towards the end of the second world war, although rebuffed, was an attempt to get to the Gulf. Since then Moscow's 15-year treaty of peace and friendship with Iraq signed in 1972 and the ever-closer relationship with South Yemen have been seen as part of Moscow's remorseless effort to have a role in Gulf affairs, more specifically to have a hand on the oil tap. Lately, with the revolution in Iran a year last February and the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan at the end of last year, this Soviet objective is believed to have come closer to realisation - with the opiate of success promising more to come?