ABSTRACT
The Middle East, from the Suez crisis to the October War, has been a source of contention between the USA and its European allies and also among the Europeans themselves, at least until 1973. The role of the Europeans there may be more important that it is in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The fall of the shah, far more than the Soviet invasion, preoccupies the leaders of the Gulf region. The Western powers would have given the opposite priority, if it were not for the problem of the hostages. Great Britain's diplomacy in the Middle East stands halfway between that of France and Germany. The former mandatory power over Palestine, Great Britain is the inheritor of a colonial past that is still evident in the largely pro-Arab Foreign Office and inside the Conservative Party. This colonial past accounts to a great extent for Britain's satisfactory relations with most of the states of the region, and its commercial successes.
