In the last 60 years, there have been a number of conflicts in the
Middle East. Many of these conflicts have been part of the
Arab-Israeli conflict: four wars between Israel and surrounding Arab countries (in 1948, 1956, 1973 and 1982).
In
1975 Jordan and Syria attempted to put aside hostilities between them and create a new alliance. By
1978 the reapproachment was off, because King Hussein of Jordan refused to allow Syria to become a dominant partner. By 1978
Syria held that the Kingdom of
Jordan was behind the "Muslim Brothers" terrorist war against Syria. See also:
Black September
Egypt fought a civil war in
Yemen from
1962 to
1967. As the war expanded into a fight with another Arab nation,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt withdrew its troops.
Kuwait and Iraq had a serious territorial dispute that led to armed warfare in
1973 and again
1976.
The Arab nation of
South Yemen[?] warred against the regime of the small Gulf state of
Oman. South Yemen supported Oman's native rebellion in
Dhofar[?]. The government of Oman was aided by
Iran. Eventually the Saudi-Arabian government offered money to South Yemen to withdraw their support. The rebellion then ended by
1976.
In
1973 Libya effectively went to war against
Chad and annexed Chadian land. Libya has a full scale invasion of Chad in
1980.
From 1973 onward, Libya was openly hostile to Egypt, and supported assassination attempts and anti-Egyptian government plots inside Egypt. Libya moved to near open warfare by
1977.
Relations between Libya and Sudan began to deteriorate after
1972. Sudan charged that Libya was involved in a terrorist plot against its government in 1976. This led to a serverence of relations between the groups. Relations were finally resumed by 1978.
This is not part of the Middle East, though Morocco is an Arab state.
Western Sahara, formerly a
Spanish colonial state, was forcibly partitioned and annexed by Morocco.
Algeria then aided the
Polisario, Saharan rebels, to create an independent Saharan republic in
1975. Morocco and Algeria had some armed clashes for a number of years afterwards.
Sometimes called the First Persian Gulf War. In this war Syria entered on the side of Iran, against Iraq, with aid and supplies.
2003 invasion of Iraq