Page 277 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

CHAPTER VI

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin

. . . MENE; God hath numbered thy
kingdom, and finished it.
TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the
balances, and art found wanting.
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and
given to the Medes and Persians.

Book of Daniel, v, 26-8

La Perse peut lever et entretenir un assez grand nombre de troupes;
mais dans ses armees il y a des hommes el point de soldats.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, 1807

The dismantling of the treaty relationship between Britain and the minor Gulf
states, which began with the abrogation of the British protectorate over Kuwait
in 1961 and ended with Britain’s withdrawal from the Gulf ten years later, also
demolished the foundations of the states system w’hich had existed in the Gulf

since the early years of this century, and in some of its aspects for even longer.
This system had ensured the prevalence of the rule of law in the conduct of the
Gulf’s affairs over the ingrained preference of the peoples and principalities
around its shores to settle their differences with one another by the sword. No
comparable system has yet emerged to replace the former dispensation upheld
by Britain, nor is there the faintest sign of such a system emerging in the
foreseeable future. The peace of the Gulf, and with it the security of shipping
upon its waters, hangs precariously in a void, unsupported by any formal or
even tacit arrangement among the Gulf states for its protection. Instead, it is
dependent solely upon their sense of self-interest, and upon whatever feelings
of responsibility they may possess towards the international community at
large. In effect, this comes down to the willingness and the ability of the three
major states, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Persia, to curb their mutual antagonisms
and preserve the status quo. They are not entirely free, however, to determine
their attitudes to one another or their general policies in the region as they
might wish; for two of them are, in varying degree, client states - Saudi Arabia