Yom Kippur War and the Arab oil embargo
- Date
- 6–25 October 1973 (war); embargo Oct 1973 – Mar 1974
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Middle East (Israel, Egypt, Syria)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 6 October 1973, the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria under Anwar Sadat and Hafez al-Assad launched a coordinated surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, seeking to recover territory lost in 1967.
Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal and initially overran Israeli defences before Israel, resupplied by a major United States airlift, counter-attacked, crossed the canal and encircled an Egyptian army. The fighting, which also drew heavy Soviet support for the Arab states, ended around 25 October under superpower-backed UN ceasefires. In response to Western support for Israel, the Arab members of OPEC (OAPEC) announced production cuts and, on 17 October 1973, an oil embargo against the United States and other states; oil prices roughly quadrupled before the embargo was lifted in March 1974. The war restored Arab confidence and Egyptian bargaining power, paving the way for the disengagement agreements and ultimately the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, while the embargo triggered a global energy crisis and demonstrated the new economic leverage of oil-producing states.
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Empires active in 6–25 October 1973 (war); embargo Oct 1973 – Mar 1974
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE – 1975 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Fall of Saigon and reunification of Vietnam30 April 1975 (reunified 1976)
- Khmer Rouge Seize Cambodia and Declare Year Zero1975
- Cuban Missile Crisis16–28 October 1962
- The Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi7 April – 19 July 1994
- Korean War25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953
- Creation of Israel and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War14 May 1948 (war May 1948 – July 1949)
Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Modern Middle East
The go-to survey of the region from the late Ottoman era to the present.
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