THE MAKING OF SOVIET MIDDLE EAST POLICY VIS-À-VIS THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT BETWEEN JUNE AND OCTOBER WARS (1967-1973)

The Soviet Union started to penetrate the Middle East in the second half of 1950’s. Moscow’s attempts to take advantage of anti-imperialist, nationalist, quasi-socialist Arab regimes reinforced its influence in the region. Cautious Soviet policy of avoiding involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict and balanced Soviet relations towards revolutionary Arab states and Israel came to an end with the June War. The aftermath of the war necessitated Moscow to revise its Middle Eastern policy vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict. In this paper, I make an attempt to examine the making of the Soviet Middle East policy vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict between the June and October wars. My main argument is that Soviets were driven by promoting their interests in developing their foreign policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict and took advantage of regional openings so as to preserve those interests. I also argue that the Soviet Union ended up being a part of the Arab-Israeli conflict as a result of its policies in interwar period.