Official Committee on the Middle East: Meetings 1-5; Papers 1-24

This file contains memoranda for the Official Committee on the Middle East’s minutes of meetings from 2 January 1959 to 31 December 1959. This entire file concerns Gulf matters. It includes memoranda concerning:

• HMG’s future policy in the Middle East
• The transport of oil from the Middle East, and the implications of a Middle East oil production crisis
• A report on Middle East oil by a Working Party of British officials, including reference to HMG's initiative to preserve the advantages, which the present oil arrangements in the Middle East bring to the UK
• The political situation in Iraq
• The supply of military equipment to the Middle East
• The reconstruction and development of the Aswan High Dam and the Qattara Depression Project in Egypt
• Sudan development projects affecting Nile waters
• The Central Treaty Organisation, including reference to: aid from the UK and US, the Multilateral Technical Cooperation Fund, the nuclear centre in Baghdad, scientific cooperation and joint communications projects such as the proposed development of the ports of Trabzon and Iskenderun
• Possible political developments in Iran, and their likely effects on Western interests
• The likely effects of the recent oil discoveries in Libya
• Soviet policies and intentions in the Middle East, with particular reference to Iraq
• Chinese communist activities in the Middle East and Africa