ABSTRACT
By early 1956, the United Kingdom and the United States had made moves to secure peace in the area, especially in view of the unsettled situation concerning Palestine and the Soviet Union's emerging power in the Arab world, demonstrated particularly by the arms deal with Egypt. This was the first time a Soviet Foreign Minister had toured the Arab world and an "observer" recalled that the Soviet Union had been the first power to recognize the independence of Saudi Arabia and the first to conclude an equal treaty of friendship with the Yemen. It should be stressed here that the Soviet Union had entered the Arab world during Nasir's rule by invitation, since Nasir was looking for an alternative to the former European colonial powers for assistance to rebuild Egyptian society economically and militarily. In a nutshell, what the Soviet Union was proposing was the diminution of Western power in the region in general and the Arab world in particular.
