UK military operations in Muscat and Oman. Code BA file 1195 (papers 1 to 27)

This file relates to UK military operations in Muscat and Oman. It contains correspondence relating to:

• Agreement that a maximum of £15,000 would be available for expenditure on operations in Oman (1)
• Record of a meeting of the Oman Working Party on 2 January 1959 [enclosed] (2)
• Draft submission on questions relating to Muscat finance as discussed at the Working Party meeting (3)
• Translation of a report from Cairo radio service Voice of the Arabs of the ambush of a British convoy in Oman (4)
• Copies of telegrams from the previous two months sent to A K Robertson in the Colonial Office [not enclosed] (5)
• Proposed draft answer to a parliamentary question to be asked by Mr de Freitas on 21 January 1959 concerning recent RAF operations in Oman (7)
• Conflicting reports in the international media on the situation in Oman, with some claiming impossible British losses (8)
• Conversation with Julian Amery, including the plans for UK forces to be withdrawn by the end of April 1959 and that the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Saeed Bin Taimur should resume negotiations for a settlement with the rebels (9)
• Signal from the British Forces Arabian Peninsula (BFAP) headquarters to the Ministry of Defence emphasising the danger of British servicemen inadvertently referring to current operations in their contributions to service magazines (10)
• Reports in the Gulf Times regarding current operations in Oman, including: the use of tracker dogs and trained African trackers with comments on this report from E F Given; and the fall of Jebel Akhdar to the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF). It also includes a request for a summary cuttings of reports in the Gulf Times (12-13, 19, 16)
• Meeting arranged by Mr de Zulueta with Colonel G Leigh at Number 10, Downing Street to discuss the work of the lifeguards in Muscat (14)
• Confirmation that Special Air Service (SAS) detachments began assaults on Jebel Akhdar on 27 January 1959 and proposed additional surrender terms (18)
• Report that the SAS occupied Saiq and Sharaijah by 30 January 1959; the quantities of arms, ammunition and documents recovered; and the virtual end of the rebellion (20)
• Premature nature of earlier reports and the progress of ongoing fighting; the need for rehabilitating the mountain villages and restoring the Sultan's prestige (21)
• Updates from operations in Jebel Akhdar. It includes: news that the area has mostly been secured by the British and the ability of the Sultan to return to Muscat to rule the country; the Sultan's subsequent instructions to the army and the plans for him to remain in Salalah until all is settled; Political Resident in the Persian Gulf G H Middleton's views on these instructions; the SAF's occupation of the mountain and the commencement of the final phase of clearing-up; and Sayyed Tariq Bin Taimur's leniency with captured rebels (22-24, 27)
• Letter from D M H Riches to the Sultan announcing the installation of the North Frontier Regiment in Jebel Akhdar (25)
• Brief for a meeting of the Defence Committee on 14 February 1959 [enclosed] (26)