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

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Details of FCO 17
Reference: FCO 17
Title: Foreign Office, Eastern Department and successors: Registered Files (E and NE Series)
Description:

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.

Date: 1966-1973
Arrangement:

Arrangement is by former file reference within annual file cycles.

Related material:

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

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

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: E and NE file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Near Eastern Department, 1968-1972

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Near East and North Africa Department, 1972-

Foreign Office, Eastern Department, 1886-1968

Physical description: 1798 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1998 Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

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.

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