ABSTRACT
US Middle East policy during 1986-87 was concerned mainly with the Persian Gulf, where new problems were added to old ones to preoccupy the Reagan Administration. A central issue involved the Administration's 1985-86 secret arms sales to Iran. There was an apparently accidental Iraqi attack on a US naval vessel, and there were several small-scale clashes between US and Iranian forces, but no major confrontation. The President's Special Review Board that was set up to investigate the affair, published its report in November 1986. The Administration's behavior blatantly contradicted its own stated policies of not negotiating with terrorists and of discouraging other countries from selling arms to Iran. The reflagging issue produced a controversy which took on both procedural and political aspects.
