Abstract
In May 1955, the Baghdad Pact—launched to connect the US geographic spheres of influence in the Middle East—polarized the region into eastern and western blocs and marginalized the Saudi regional role. The pact was designed as a bilateral defense agreement between Iraq and Turkey; it was extended to include Pakistan and also Britain, who was the protector of the southern Persian Gulf. Iran was the last state to join the Baghdad Pact, on October 11, 1955, after the shah’s persistent efforts to bring the country into the western sphere of influence. He did so against the advice of the British who believed that the Iranian economy could not sustain the military costs of the pact. More likely, Britain did not wish Iran to compete with it through the pact.
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Notes
Sonoko Sunayama, Syria and Saudi Arabia: Contradiction and Conflicts in the Oil Era (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007), pp. 24–25.
Saeed M. Badeeb, TheSaudi-Egyptian Conflict over North Yemen: 1962–1970 (Boulder: Westview Press, 1986), pp. 12
Saeed M. Badeeb, Saudi—Iranian Relations 1932–1982 (London: Centre for Arab Iranian Studies and Echoes, 1993), p. 53.
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Mordechai Abir, Oil, PowerandPolitics: Conflict ofAsian andAfrican Studies (London: Franck Cass, 1974), pp. 53–54.
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© 2016 Banafsheh Keynoush
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Keynoush, B. (2016). Diplomatic Relations: 1955–1963. In: Saudi Arabia and Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-58939-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-58939-2_6
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