Soviet Middle Eastern foreign policy during the Cold War was shaped by two primary concerns, as perceived by the Soviet leadership. 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. During the Cold War, the USSR first started to maintain a proactive foreign policy in the Middle East as a whole in the mid-1950s. The rise of Arab Nationalism, which was a highly anti-Western movement, enabled the Soviet Union to form alliances with various Arab leaders, a notable example being Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. In order to sustain its sphere of influence in the region, the USSR provided military and economic assistance to pro-Soviet states and exploited regional conflicts and rivalries, such as between Arab states and Israel, to its advantage. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 would result in a power vacuum in the Middle East and contributed to the rise of American hegemony in the region.
Background
Prior to World War Two and the following Cold War, Soviet foreign policy in the Middle East was mainly concerned with the Northern Tier countries consisting of Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran in particular. The USSR had, together with United Kingdom, long been involved in a competition for influence in Iran which culminated in the Anglo-Soviet invasion of the country in 1941. After the conclusion of the Second World War, Soviet foreign policy in the region was initially characterised by a limited level of engagement. Instead, Stalin's attention was mostly directed towards East Asia and Central Europe. 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. It was only under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, beginning in 1953, that the USSR would start pursuing a more proactive foreign policy throughout the region.
Soviet Cold War entry into the Middle East
Due to its geopolitical significance and its vast oil resources, 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. 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, 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. In the 1950s, the USSR would go on to forge ties with Arab nationalist leaders in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Algeria, and North Yemen. In 1955, the Soviet Union spearheaded the Egyptian-Czechslovak arms deal. This was considered a turning point in the Cold War and marked a major entry of the USSR in the great-power struggle in the Middle East.