Russia and the Arabs : Behind the Scenes in the Middle East From the Cold War to the Present

Part memoir, part history, __Russia and the Arabs__ reveals the past half-century in the Middle East from a viewpoint seldom seen by Westerners. Yevgeny Primakov, formerly the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister of Russia, exposes how key political events unfolded through the personal interactions and rivalries among notable leaders from Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin to Anwar Sadat and Saddam Hussein, whom he knew personally. He shows how the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars developed, exposes Russia’s previously unknown role in the 1991 Gulf War, and assesses Russia’s Middle East policies alongside those of other foreign players, including the United States. The author’s first-hand accounts of behind-the-scenes encounters and his insights into what really drove the region’s key events make __Russia and the Arabs__ an essential read for everyone interested in world affairs. "In Russia and the Arabs, Americans are given a look at Cold War and now post-Cold War relationships in the Middle East through the eyes and roles of Yevgeny Primakov - Russia's Kissinger in every sense of that name. '[The Middle East] is a region I have followed for half a century as a journalist, academic and politician - as a correspondent for Pravda; as deputy director (and later director) of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the USSR Academy of Science; at the Academy's Institute of Oriental Studies; as head of the SVR (Russia's foreign intelligence service); as Russian foreign minister, as Russian prime minister and as a deputy in the Duma, Russia's parliament.' Russia and the Arabs is as much a history of the Middle East as a memoir, when Primakov recounts his and the Soviet/Russian roles in the Arab world. He begins with Nasser's Egypt of the early 1950s, and the period in which the USSR gained its first toehold in the Middle East. Primakov emphasizes that despite Arab nationalism - regional identities and politics always trumped pan-Arab ones - and professed revolutionary, even socialist aims, the new regimes sought accommodation with the U.S. and kept their new ally, and primary source of weapons, the USSR at some distance. After Egypt, Primakov turns to examine Lebanon from the Civil War of 1975 to 2005 and the Hariri assassination, to the emergence of Arafat as Palestinian leader, and then to an appraisal of the USSR's overall relationship with and qualified support for Israel - there are now some one million recent Russian emigrants there. In the final chapters, Primakov narrates Russia's frustrated ties with Saddam Hussein, and judges Saddam Hussein to have suffered self-delusion in misreading the U.S., his new supporter during the Iran-Iraq war. This is especially interesting, not the least that Primakov was Putin's envoy to Iraq. Here, too, there is suggestion of Primakov's conspiratorial view of events. The Kurds, Israeli nuclear capabilities, and the future of the Middle East including the consequences of the Iraq War, Iran's growing power and nuclear potential, Hamas, Lebanon and religious divisions are all analyzed in the end."--Review by Gene R. Garthwaite in http://www.historybookclub.com

Part memoir, part history, Russia and the Arabs reveals the past half-century in the Middle East from a viewpoint seldom seen by Westerners. Yevgeny Primakov, formerly the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister of Russia, exposes how key political events unfolded through the personal interactions and rivalries among notable leaders from Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin to Anwar Sadat and Saddam Hussein, whom he knew personally. He shows how the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars developed, exposes Russia’s previously unknown role in the 1991 Gulf War, and assesses Russia’s Middle East policies alongside those of other foreign players, including the United States. The author’s first-hand accounts of behind-the-scenes encounters and his insights into what really drove the region’s key events make Russia and the Arabs an essential read for everyone interested in world affairs.

The nationalist revolutionaries -- A failed chance for Arab-Israeli relations -- The inevitable confrontation with the west -- National interests take precedence over Arab unity -- The Soviet Union and the Arab world: a difficult path to closer ties -- The lost cause of Communism -- America steps forward -- The beginning and end of the six-day war -- USA: tactics in the new Middle East -- Hidden pressures behind the Yom Kippur War of 1973 -- The making of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty -- Lebanon in the eye of a storm -- A return to a harder line -- The Arafat phenomenon -- The Soviet Union and Israel -- The phenomenon that was Saddam Hussein -- The saga of the Kurds -- A nuclear shadow over the Arab-Israeli conflict -- The future of the Middle East