ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the motivations, ideological commitment, and interests of Soviet policy toward the Middle East during the cold war era and the transformation of this policy in the post–cold war world. As to oil, the USSR had plenty of it to begin with; any attempt to deprive the US allies of Middle East oil would have been extremely dangerous since it was clear that the West would not hesitate to protect its access to that commodity with military force. The only thing left, therefore, was the USSR's strategic alliance with the left-wing Arab regimes. This alliance was born under Nikita Khrushchev, who, in 1955, struck the famous arms deal with Egyptian President Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser. Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze preferred to be seen as strong and tough vis-à-vis the West; accordingly, Soviet Middle East policy remained for a time basically unchanged.
