IN THE DIRECTION OF THE PERSIAN GULF Page Intentionally Left Blank IN THE DIRECTION OF THE PERSIAN GULF The Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf A. Yodfat and M. Abir ~~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1977 in Great Britain and in the United States of America by FRANK CASS AND COMPANY LIMITED Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright© 1977 A. Yodfat & M. Abir ISBN 978-0-714-63071-7 ISBN 978-1-315-034 72-0 ( eiSBN) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re produced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Contents Foreword xi Chapter I Oil: The USSR and the Persian Gulf I Chapter II Russia and the Middle East 21 Chapter III Soviet Regime-First Stages (1917-1947) 28 Chapter IV Limited Soviet Successes (1940--late 1950s) 34 Chapter V The Breakthrough (late 1950s-1967) 46 Chapter VI Anticipating a Vacuum in the Gulf(I967-1971) 59 Chapter VII 'In the Direction of the Persian Gulf' (1972-1976) 77 Chapter VIII South Yemen-The Cuba of the Middle East 103 Chapter IX Power Rivalry in the Indian Ocean 117 Chapter X Trends and Considerations 124 Appendices: 1. Soviet-Iraqi Treaty 135 2. Soviet-Somali Treaty 139 Notes 143 Bibliography 154 Index 159 Maps I. West Siberia and Soviet Oil and Gas Plans xii 2. The Persian Gulf 47 3. People's Democratic Republic ofYemen 104 Page Intentionally Left Blank Abbreviations ARAMCO Arabian-American Oil Company ASU Arab Socialist Union (Egypt, Iraq) cc Central Committee CENTO Central Treaty Organization CIA Central Intelligence Agency (USA) CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) CP Communist Party CPR Chinese People's Republic CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union DPK Democratic Party ofKurdistan ELF Eritrean Liberation Front GDR German Democratic Republic GRU Glavnoe Razvedovatel'noe Upravlenie, Main(Military) Intelligence Directorate (USSR) ICP Iraqi Communist Party INOC Iraqi National Oil Company IPC Iraq Petroleum Company KGB Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, Committee for State Security (USSR) ME Middle East NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NF National Front, see: NLF NLF National Liberation Front (PDRY) OAPEC Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop- ment OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries PDRY People's Democratic Republic ofthe Yemen PFLO Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman PFLOAG Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian (Persian) Gulf viii IN THE DIRECTION OF THE PERSIAN GULF PLF Popular Liberation Front, see: PFLOAG PRSY People's Republic of South Yemen RAF Royal Air Force (Britain) TASS Telegraph Agency ofthe Soviet Union UAE Union of Arab Emirates UAR United Arab Republic (Egypt) YAR Yemen Arab Republic The German Ambassador in Moscow, Count von der Schulenburg, reported that in their conversation on November 26, 1940, Molotov had said that the Soviet Government was prepared 'to accept the draft of the Four Power Pact ... Provided that the area south ofBatum and Baku in the general direction of the Persian Gulf is recognized as the centre of the aspirations of the Soviet Union'. Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office