Abstract

On 18 July 1972 the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat expelled the Soviet military contingent from his country, signalling his intention to re-align Egypt with the Western powers. In response, the British government under its Prime Minister, Edward Heath, sought to encourage Sadat’s defection from the Soviet orbit by supporting arms transfers to Egypt. The Heath government’s approach was influenced both by strategic as well as commercial factors, but despite its intentions limited progress was made in promoting defence sales, due mainly to the UK’s concerns about the resumption of Arab-Israeli hostilities, the potential impact of arms transfers on Anglo-American relations, and concerns within the British armed forces and intelligence services that the Soviet bloc could exploit any Egyptian security breaches. The Egyptian armed forces were also primarily interested in weapons systems (notably the Jaguar ground attack jet) which Britain was unwilling to sell. There were therefore only a few defence sales agreements concluded between the UK and Egypt before the former imposed an arms embargo following the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War on 6 October 1973.

摘要

1972年7月18日，埃及总统安瓦尔·萨达特（Anwar Sadat）将苏联军事特遣队赶出了他的国家，这表明他打算使埃及与西方列强结盟。作为回应，英国政府在其首相爱德华·希思（Edward Heath）的领导下，通过支持向埃及的武器转让，鼓励萨达特（Satat）背叛苏联。希思政府的做法受到战略和商业因素的影响，但尽管其意图是在促进国防销售方面取得有限的进展，这主要是由于英国对恢复阿以敌对行动的担忧，武器转让对伊拉克的潜在影响所致。英美关系，以及英国武装部队和情报部门内部对苏联集团可能利用任何埃及安全漏洞的担忧。英国不愿出售的“美洲虎”地面攻击喷气机。因此，在1973年10月6日的赎罪日战争爆发后，英国与埃及之间只有几项国防销售协议，而前者则实施了武器禁运。