Conclusion

The conflict in the Middle East between 1955 and 1958 was essentially an undeclared war that dragged outside actors into the region as proxy supporters of Nasserist and pro-Western Arab states. The Anglo-American interventions in Lebanon and Jordan marked the culmination of a series of crises that signified the imposition of the Cold War in the region after the formation of the Baghdad Pact and the Egyptian decision to seek arms supplies from the eastern bloc. Once the 1958 crisis abated, the Middle East settled down to a period of an uneasy truce as the UAR and the new nationalist regime in Iraq suspected each other’s designs for regional predominance and all the Arab regimes contemplated the growing military preeminence of Israel. Jordan and the UAR resumed diplomatic relations in August 1959. By the middle of that year, there was even a resigned acceptance in London that they have to devise a more constructive policy towards Nasser. ¹ Britain’s decision for détente with Nasser was, if not a genuine reconciliation, at least a move towards peaceful coexistence with Cairo.