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Volume :7 Issue : 25 1987
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The Eastern Mediterranean Alliance Project (1948) (in Arabic)
Auther : Ahmad A.Mustafa
After the Second World War Britain invited the independent Arab states to conclude with her the military alliances that could give her the right of putting up her troops and building military bases. The different Arab states, however, while favoring such alliances, were hesitant to agree to the other British conditions, especially those concerning the presence of British troops, while Egypt insisted that the presence of such troops in the Suez Canal base should come to an end. Britain, on her side, insisted on obtaining such facilities, in case of both war and peace, that could enable her of fulfilling her defense objectives, indicating, as a pretext, that the Arab states were unable, with their own means, to resist foreign aggression.
Britain, who could not wait indefinitely for Arab endorsement of her proposals, sought in 1951 another version, and invited her allies: the United States, Turkey and France to join her in presenting the proposals connected with the Mutual Defense alliance, Egypt refused such proposals and Britain switched to Iraq, and in 1955 came into being the Baghdad pact whose members were Britain, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. Its membership was also open to any Arab country which would choose to join it.
Owing to the resistance of the Arab peoples to any military connection with imperial Britain, the Baghdad pact collapsed after no more than three years, when Iraq withdrew from it in 1958.