The Arabian Gulf in British politics 1979-1991

Abstract

At the beginning of 1968, Britain decided to withdraw completely from all its privileges in the area east of Suez to including military presence and political influence in Persian Gulf region. In November 1971 AD the region starts with new arrangements in which Britain tried to regulate the level of important international relations and interests for this area and the interactions of regional powers to maintain the security and stability of Arab Gulf, which is called the theory of filling the void.In the eighties, the area entered into a cycle of a long war between the two great neighbors, Iraq and Iran, in which Britain committed itself to its new strategy of dealing in accordance with the political, economic and military relations with these two countries, and it did not interfere to impose a new order in Arab Gulf as long as things were under control and international interests were not exposed. However, by the end of this decade, the tension became more dangerous when the relationship between the two Arab neighbors, Iraq and Kuwait, worsened, ending with occupation of the former to the latter, which imposed a new regional and international reality that ended with the formation of an international alliance in which Britain played a major role. British forces returned to the region to contribute to the expulsion of the Iraqi forces, from Kuwait, which means a change in the course of the British withdrawal strategy and a return to intervention and imposing influence, even if it is under international cover.