ABSTRACT
A less incomplete analysis of the situation in the Middle East would have meant asking questions in Moscow, Washington and the Arab capitals. For the time being the Russian position in the Arab countries has been maintained or consolidated. United States diplomacy has come out against a pure and simple return to the situation of May, 1967. The build-up of Egyptian troops in Sinai, following the defence agreement between Egypt and Syria, was aimed in any case at dissuading the Jerusalem government from any more acts of reprisal. France appears only to have played a minor role in the development of the crisis. At the United Nations, the Soviet Union sought French cooperation in order to win the French-speaking countries of black Africa over to her cause. But it was with the United States that she drafted a common motion and looked for a settlement.
