Joint policy discussions on Middle East between UK and US

This file relates to Anglo-American policy discussions on the Middle East. It contains:

• Extract from the minutes of a meeting held on 29 March 1957 by the Official Committee on the Middle East, showing the discussion of the decisions taken at the Bermuda Conference (15-16)
• Collection of notes prepared by the Foreign Office for forthcoming discussions in Washington DC on the Middle East. It includes notes on: the Kuwait-Iraq frontier; Gulf States; Saudi Arabia and Buraimi and their relations to Kuwait; and Egypt (18)
• Request from Adnan Menderes, the Prime Minister of Turkey, for more information about the results of the Bermuda Conference (19)
• Request from the Political Residency in the Persian Gulf for information about what happened at the Bermuda Conference. It also contains an account of the meeting on 21 March at 3.45pm (21)
• Correspondence regarding the plans for Stage III of the Anglo-American talks on the Middle East (22-23, 27-30)
• Text of the first of the agreed minutes which the Prime Minister and the US President initialled at Bermuda (23)
• Update on the progress of the talks in Washington, DC (24)
• Account of the series of meetings that took place between 16 April and 10 May, along with a 'Review of Middle East problems bearing upon the supply of oil to the free world', summarising the Anglo-American exchange of views on this topic. It also contains a suggestion that a more positive Anglo-American line on Aden should be sought at Stage III of the talks (25, 31)
• Correspondence regarding the preparations for the Middle East talks in Washington DC (25A)
• Copies of annexes to papers prepared for the talks in Washington DC. They cover Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. It also contains a 'paper on the system of protection in the Persian Gulf, and on related matters concerned with the Persian Gulf and Aden and its protectorate' (26)
• Text of the News Department's guidance for press enquiries on the Middle East talks (32)
• Correspondence regarding a request from the Israeli Ambassador in the UK for information about the Anglo-American talks. It also contains an agreed paper on 'measures to ensure continued access to Middle East petroleum resources' (33)
• Reports on Stage III of the talks. It includes: a final copy of the paper agreed at the end of the talks; a memorandum of comment on the talks; a record of some subsidiary points made during the talks; and copies of the brief on the Gulf seabed and islands (34)
• Preliminary consideration of the subjects that might form the agenda of the next talks (35)