Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Near East Region; Iran; Iraq, Volume XII

417. Telegram From the Embassy in Iraq to the Department of State²

Baghdad, January 5, 1955—5 p.m.

411. Nuri received me this morning at his home (Embassy telegram 405 January 4).³ He looked ill and at first seemed quite listless but livened up considerably as our talk developed.

I reminded him of his earlier statements to me that if Iraq was to have an expanded arms program the money would have to come from the UK and the US. I had now, I said, received some observations from Washington on this subject which I wanted to pass on to him.

We felt, I said, that Iraq could not only maintain an armed force of the present size out of her own resources, but perhaps even somewhat expanded one. We were in agreement, though that any considerable expansion would no doubt have to be at the expense of the development program.

I told Nuri that we were now engaged with the British in working out an agreement covering direct aid and offshore procurement and that this was being done on the basis of Iraq’s present requirements.

My final statement on the subject of arms aid was that any decisions on the amount of aid we were prepared to extend would in the last analysis be influenced by how much was being done locally toward building up regional defense and to what extent facilities for the common defense of the free world were made available.

Nuri without mentioning British Chargé’s call on him yesterday said “the British want money from us. They have a lot of old equipment at Suez that they want to get rid of. I have told them that I could not divert money from the development program for any kind of arms. If I cannot get the money from the UK or the US for more arms, then I will have to just go along as at present.

I reiterated my statement that the extent of aid that the US was prepared to supply was dependent on how quickly and extensively Iraq moved with her neighbors in the field of regional defense, and on just what facilities for common defense were made available.

We then passed on to other subjects that are being covered in separate messages.⁴

Gallman

2. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 787.5–MSP/1–555. Confidential. Repeated to London.
3. Telegram 405 informed the Department of Ambassador Gallman’s efforts to obtain an appointment with Nuri. (Ibid.)
4. Infra.