Page 411 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

408 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

running into domestic political difficulties as a consequence of his own mis­
management of the British economy, was so incensed by the thought that
Britain would fare no better for oil than her partners in the EEC that he
summoned the chairmen of BP and Shell at the end of the third week of
October to demand that they see to it that Britain was supplied with her normal

needs. He was given in reply a curt lecture on the ethics and operations of the
international oil industry.
For all its fawning upon the Arabs, Heath’s government was still regarded
with some suspicion by the fire-eaters in the Arab camp. When the Arab oil
ministers met at Kuwait on 4-5 November to review the working of the

embargo and, as we have seen, to increase the cut-back in oil production to 25
per cent, the Kuwaiti minister, Abdur Rahman al-Atiqi, vehemently
expressed his dissatisfaction with the British attitude to the Arab cause. ‘We
appreciate the stand taken by France,’ he said.

I personally do not appreciate the British position. The British government has allowed
the collection of contributions to Israel and as many as £40 million have already been
sent to Israel. To me, and as long as I live, Britain will remain the country which had
permitted the founding of the State of Israel when it granted the Balfour Declara­
tion.

It would have been useful to remind Atiqi that Britain was also the country
which had enabled the state of Kuwait to come into existence and which for

many decades had safeguarded it from its enemies. But perhaps it was too
much to expect of any British government in recent years that it should venture
to reproach a functionary of a minor Arab state for his impertinence. A week
later the irrepressible Atiqi was vapouring again, this time against the countries
of the EEC. ‘Should they defy the Arab States by announcing solidarity with
Holland publicly,’ he blustered, ‘then we shall take measures against them.

No European government had sufficient spirit to respond by pointing out that,
if it was in order for the Arab oil states to band together to restrict oil supplies
and raise prices for political and mercenary ends, it was equally in order for the
Western industrial countries likewise to combine to resist such extortion.
While the fear and disarray among the Western nations were an undilute
source of gratification to the OAPEC ministers gathered at Kuwait in the rst

week of November, at the same time the ministers themselves were shg t j
apprehensive about the direction in which their policy might be taking t erm
Figures of 37.8 per cent and 31 per cent were being bandied about as t
amounts by which Saudi Arabia and Kuwait respectively were said to have cu ,
or were about to cut, their oil output. (Neither figure was remotely true, as

production figures for both countries in the last quarter of 1973
revealed.) Yet the original resolution passed by OAPEC on 17 c
required each member state to reduce its oil production only'to
would not cause ‘detriment to its national and Arab obhga