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THE TIME HAS COME FOR EUROPE to put pressure on the United States to change its Middle East policy if another war in the region is to be avoided, the London representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) told a recent meeting" in London. Speaking at the House of Commons Faisal Aouidha warned a special meeting, organised by the Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding (CAABU), that the scene was set for another war in the Middle East.

SPENDING by Bahrain government ministries is to be cut with the introduction of a new finance streamlining package, in line with the drive to get the country's development programme back on target.

We devote much of this issue of Gulf States Newsletter to the major concerns of the fourth Gulf Co-operation Council Summit, which ended in Doha last week. However, not every aspect of the meeting of the six Heads of State can be conveniently docketed under suitable subject labels.

THE AFFAIRS OF ALL THE GULF come into close focus on 9 November, when the Heads of State of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) meet in Doha for the Council's Summit Conference. It is a meeting at which, more so than for any previous GCC summit, grave and dangerous situations of an international significance must occupy as much attention as regional domestic concerns.

THE IMPENDING SUMMIT MEETING of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) , due to take place in Doha on 7 November, could be the most important gathering in the short history of the Council.

THREE YEARS AGO THIS MONTH troops of the Iraqi Army moved across the border into Iranian territory and, officially on 4 September 1980, the bitter strife of a new Middle East war began. In those now distant days of 1980 the ,Iraqi government announced its action with a lengthy list of stern demands on Iran and unequivocal claims for sole Iraqi sovereignty over the Shatt al Arab waterway.

AMIDST all the confusion of recent days, highlighted by Menachem Begin's (delayed) resignation and the latest violence in Beirut, two factors stand out clearly, and must be spotlighted. The United States Administration is not about to order the Marines to pack up and leave Lebanon; the Israeli Army is withdrawing from the Chouf Mountains.

After nearly three years of frustration in its efforts to bring security for western strategic interests in the Middle East, the Reagan Administration is now preparing for the traditional, lengthy run-up to the Presidential election in November 1984. Changes in ambassadors and State Department personnel reflect election factors, and thus the establishment of a task force to tackle crises as they come rather than the creation of a new team to undertake fresh initiatives.

THE IRANIAN THREAT to prevent all Arab oil exports from the Gulf, if Iran's own oil exports are disrupted by Iraqi military action, is an ominous signpost to a possible spread of the Gulf war. The threat is directed more to the other Gulf Arab countries than to Iraq, since the seaborne route is already closed to the latter. The threat may be designed to so alarm the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that they will pressurise Iraq not to carry out its threat to attack Iranian oil installations.

KUWAIT IS TO APPROACH THE SOVIET UNION in a bid to contain the war between Iraq and Iran, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) says, quoting unidentified press reports. The Kuwaiti initiative will be undertaken by a high-level Parliamentary delegation, scheduled to visit Moscow on 25 July. The KUNA reports say that the Kuwaiti delegation, led by National Assembly Speaker, Mohammad Yousef al Adsani, will dedicate their efforts to exploring avenues of bringing an end to the 34-month old Gulf war.

In the second of two articles on the security of the member states of the Gulf Co-operation Council, Newsletters considers the GCC's position on external defence in the light of its announced doctrine of self-reliance.

The increasing attention now being given by the Gulf Co-operation council to external defence co-ordination is closely linked to internal security matters. Newsletters examines aspects of this issue. A subsequent article will examine defence co-ordination and related questions.

THE RECENT GCC MISSION to Tehran and Baghdad, ostensibly to obtain an agreement on dealing with the Gulf oil slick problem, also carried outline proposals for an end to the fighting between Iran and Iraq (see Last issue of Gulf States Newsletter). A key element in the GCC peace package was a suggestion to set up a largely Gulf financed fund to repair war-damage in the two countries; a proposal obviously designed to meet in part Iranian demands for war reparations.

THE GULF CO-OPERATION COUNCIL has, rather gingerly, given its approval to the Lebanon-Israeli withdrawal agreement. The GCC Foreign Ministers'' meeting In Riyadh last week expressed "respect for the will of the' Lebanese constitutional bodies manifested in the accord on the withdrawal of Israeli forces". A press release, issued at the end of the ministers' session, made a polite reference to 'the sacrifices made by Syria', but the six nation grouping has lined itself with the majority Arab position of lukewarm support for the withdrawal agreement.

TEHRAN'S CRACKDOWN ON THE LEFT, culminating in the dissolution of the proSoviet Tudeh (communist) Party and the recent expulsion of 18 Soviet diplomats from the country, brings down the curtain on the ruling regime's uneasy alliance with Iran's left-wing political factions. It also demonstrates the increasing strength of the rightwing Fundamentalists in Iran and the deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union.