One common bond between the Arab nations
was hostility to Israel. Beyond this the rivalries
between the Arab rulers, the old and the new, led
to bewildering diplomatic manoeuvres, coups and
changes of sides, some even secretly securing
Israeli assistance. The outside powers and the
Cold War further complicated what were rapidly
changing alignments in the Middle East after- There, international, regional and internal
struggles for predominance have created contin-
uing war and conflict.
The Anglo-French debacle at Suez raised
Nasser’s prestige enormously. But he was handi-
capped by Egypt’s poverty and lack of valuable
resources such as oil; indebted more and more to
the Soviet Union to pay for new weapons, Egypt
had to pledge its only important cash crop,
cotton, in return. The rapid growth of the pop-
ulation meant that increased production hardly
improved the lot of the peasants and the urban
poor. Nor did the Aswan High Dam deliver the
promised transformation of the Egyptian peas-
antry. But externally Egypt looked as if it might
assume a powerful place in the Middle East. The
pan-Arab cause appeared to be in the ascendant
when Syria in 1958 initiated steps to unite with
Egypt to form the United Arab Republic. Other
Arab nations were invited to join. But Syria was
as poor as Egypt and the union was largely one
of paper only. The only other state to join was
the poorest of all the Arab states, Yemen. There
was no geographical contiguity between these
three nations. The union did not last long: in
September 1961 the pro-Nasserites were over-
thrown in a military coup in Syria, which there-
upon left the United Arab Republic. It was no
serious loss, but the Yemen connection proved
very costly for Egypt.
In 1963 civil war broke out in the Yemen Arab
Republic. The hereditary rulers were backed by
Saudi Arabia, and the officers who had rebelled
looked to Moscow and Egypt for support. Egypt
despatched some 70,000 troops eventually and
the fighting dragged on, a costly drain on the
Egyptian treasury. The other Yemen, which
comprised what had from 1956 to 1967 been
Britain’s Aden and hinterland, turned itself into
the pro-Soviet People’s Democratic Republic of
Yemen. (Unification of the two Yemens was even-
tually proclaimed in May 1990. The new state was
named the Republic of Yemen.) To complicate
matters further, while Egypt and Saudi Arabia
were sworn enemies and at war by proxy in the
Yemen, Saudi Arabia supported Egypt in its con-
flict with Israel. But, until rearmed, Nasser could
not contemplate another war with Israel. For ten
years raids into Israel from Egyptian territory
ceased. It was an armed peace. Nor was there any
attempt to stop Israeli commerce from using the
seaport of Eilat and passing down the Gulf of
Aqaba through the Straits of Tiran. The passage
was guaranteed by France, Britain and the US.
The Sinai had been handed back to Egypt after
1956; a United Nations force policed the border(^1) Chapter 41
THE STRUGGLE FOR PREDOMINANCE
IN THE MIDDLE EAST