US STRATEGIC INTERESTS IN IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Abstract : Over a decade ago, an Iranian author writing on the Persian Gulf area summarized its future prospects with an expression of irony. He concluded, in essence, that despite its huge wealth, resources, and minerals, the area remained in the grips of poverty, destitution, misfortune, hopelessness, and benign neglect.! If he were to write his account today, he would come to a totally different conclusion. The events since the October 1973 War have dramatically altered the future of the Gulf area. Since then, there has appeared a growing concern and awareness in the Western World regarding this region. Yet, unfortunately, it remains one of the least understood parts of the world, principally due to the complex, emotion-laden issues that involve interactions between the Gulf states and the Western World-issues such as the 1973 oil embargo, the multiple increases in the price of oil, the arms transfer, and the growing financial power of the Gulf states. This article will focus on the development of US national security policies and broadly defined strategic interests with regard to Iran and Saudi Arabia in the framework of their strategic, economic, and political significance; it will discuss the changing con text of US policy toward them as a result of events in 1973; and it will evaluate the principal issues in US relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia during the remainder of the 1970s.