Foreign Office, Eastern Department and successors: Registered Files (E and NE Series)

FCO 17

1966-1973

This series contains records of the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office to October 1968 dealing with UK relations with the Middle East generally, especially following the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, and with Afghanistan, the Palestine question, Jordan, the Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories and Syria and with the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) from January 1967.

From October 1968, the records are those of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Near Eastern Department, covering the same states and organisations with the exception of Afghanistan, for which responsibility passed to the South Asian Department.

From April 1972 the records in the NE series were produced by the merged Near East and North Africa Department, concerning Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Territories and Syria. Records relating to North Africa continued to be filed by the new department on the separate NA file series (FCO 38) until the end of the year.

Arrangement is by former file reference within annual file cycles.

Later files on Iran, Iraq and CENTO are in FCO 8

Later Near East and North Africa Department files are in FCO 93

E and NE file series

Public Record(s)

English

• Foreign and Commonwealth Office Near Eastern Department, 1968-1972
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Near East and North Africa Department, 1972-1972
• Foreign Office, Eastern Department, 1886-1968

1798 file(s)

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

From 1998 Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Topics

International

Asia

Conflict

Middle East

Operations, battles and campaigns

Series is accruing

The Eastern Department of the Foreign Office continued with largely unaltered functions under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, except that the department's name changed to the Near Eastern Department, and responsibility for relations with Afghanistan passed to the South Asian Department.

The department was abolished in 1972, its functions being split between the Middle East Department (Iran, Iraq, CENTO) and the Near East and North Africa Department. The Near East and North Africa Department continued to use the NE file series to register records relating to Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Territories and Syria.