The backdrop to the tangled relations between the European Economic Community/European Union and the countries of the Mediterranean littoral and the Gulf Co-operation Council is a chain of unsuccessful and successive initiatives on the part of the Europeans in respect of the Arab world. The entire process, now spanning a period of almost forty years, has been termed the Euro-Arab Dialogue. Paradoxically the initial stimulus for the Euro-Arab Dialogue was the Arab-Israeli War (6-24 October) of 1973 and the concerted, coordinated action against the West that followed. The Arab countries first began to use oil as a weapon in the Middle East struggle. For six months between October 1973 and March 1974, the Arab oil producing countries maintained an embargo on oil exports to countries in the West that showed a pro-Israeli stance. This action exposed a fundamental European economic vulnerability and at the same time forced the Europeans to re-examine their uncritical support for Israel in general and its expansionist policies in particular. Subsequently it also exerted considerable pressure on the countries of Western Europe not only to revise their policies vis-à-vis Israel but equally importantly, to have their views and opinions (thus far largely ignored by the Europeans), taken seriously into account.
