For many commentators and historians the announcement of the Carter Doctrine signaled the end of the British presence and the final transfer of power to the United States in the Persian Gulf. But on the ground the reality was different. After the announcement of the British leaving the Persian Gulf in 1971, formal positions were replaced by informal ones. Britain still ran much of the political, economic, and military life in the lower Gulf and in the Arabian Peninsula. The transition from formal to informal empire was seamless: British influence remained large and almost paramount in the region. Tore T. Petersen sets out the policy objectives of Great Britain and the United States as they confronted the initial emergence of fundamentalist Islam, with the occupation of the Holy Mosque in Mecca and Khomenei's revolution in Iran.