An Unclaimed Arab League Victory: The Foreign Office–Led Cessation of Kuwaiti Oil to Haifa

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1952, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and Shell were clandestinely shipping Kuwaiti oil to the Haifa refinery (owned by the same companies) to meet Israel’s growing energy needs. Later that year, aided by the advent of German reparations, the companies agreed to further supply Kuwaiti oil to the Israel Fuel Corporation for it to refine. By 1953, Kuwait became the leading source of crude oil to the Haifa refinery. That February, the Arab League publicly stated that it wanted the Gulf countries to join its economic boycott on Israel and, as a result, received a public assurance from the ruler of Kuwait that his country, still a British protectorate, would not be used as a ‘bridge for trade with Israel’. From that moment onwards, and with the shipments under investigation by the Arab League, a monthslong debate emerged between the British government and the oil companies over whether to wait for an Arab League–inspired directive from the ruler forbidding these shipments, which would grant the organisation a moral victory at the expense of British interests, or to anticipate the event by ceasing of their own accord for maximum convenience at the expense of Israel. The Foreign Office, which forcefully pushed for cessation despite resistance from other government bodies and the oil companies, ultimately had its way and managed to pre-empt an Arab League hammer in the making that might have driven a wedge between the United Kingdom and what had become her most prized foreign asset, Kuwait.