The first key priority was ensuring the security interests of the Soviet Union itself, mainly by countering American presence in the region, with the second concern revolving around the ideological struggle between communism and capitalism.
[7] The Soviet Union supported the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and demonstrated a restrained stance in its foreign policy approach toward Iran, despite the absence of limitations imposed by Western powers.
[8] Due to its geopolitical significance and its vast oil resources,[9] the Middle East gradually evolved into an arena for the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The USSR sought a greater presence to offset American influence after it had developed close ties with a number of states in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Pakistan, Turkey, and Iraq also joined Western-sponsored security alliances in the 1950s, further prompting the USSR to increase its sphere of influence and presence in the region.
[10] The rise of Arab nationalism, which had replaced Islamism as the leading ideology in the region after the establishment of nation states in the aftermath of the First World War,[11] presented the Soviet Union with an opportunity to establish consistent relations with the Arab world, as the movement had anti-Western tendencies and showed some sympathy toward the Soviet Union and its ideology.
[17][18] After the Six-Day War, the Soviet Union became a major player in the Middle East as its proxy countries dragged it deeper into Mideast political intrigue.
[20] John S. Badeau wrote about the background of Soviet-American relations with the Arabs after World War II in Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science.
Throughout the Cold War, foreign relations between the Soviet Union and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) are thought to have been particularly close.
President Richard Nixon used the Sino-Soviet split to begin ending the Cold War by breaking down political and economic barriers between the U.S. and China, further isolating the Soviets.
[27] Nixon also became a key player in Middle East peace talks, ignoring Dwight D. Eisenhower's non-interventionism and hoping that his reputation for ending the Vietnam War, brokering the first nuclear-arms treaty and opening China to American trade would overshadow the Watergate scandal.