ABSTRACT
The importance of the Middle East, and particularly the Arab world, to the United States cannot be exaggerated. American interests in the area are dominated by three elements - oil, security and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The proximity of the oil-wells to the Soviet Union and their relative distance from the United States underscores the importance to America of geopolitical alliances in the area. The United States was no less eager to re-establish normal relations with the Arab world. From the earliest days of Richard Nixon’s presidency, the Nixon administration expressed deep apprehension over the unsolved Middle East conflict and its threat to world peace. On 6 September 1973, for the first time, President Nixon publicly linked American oil needs to Middle Eastern policy. The use of the oil weapon had many drastic consequences, not only on the Middle East, but on the world as a whole.
