Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Near East: Jordan-Yemen, Volume XIII

320. Telegram From the Embassy in Syria to the Department of State¹

Damascus, January 24, 1956—11 a.m.

688. Pass Army. C/S Shuqayr has informed Army Attaché:

(1) He and President Quwwatli wanted to sign reimbursable aid agreement with US, Prime Minister Ghazzi would probably go along but time is not ripe;

(2) Such an agreement would require parliamentary ratification and would be defeated in Parliament by Communist Deputy Khalid Bakdash aided by others. Also public opinion would be unfavorable unless Syria received some prior benefit from US not connected with any agreement;

(3) Egypt had offered Syria anti-aircraft equipment as part of Syro-Egyptian Pact. Syria had accepted offer. He said he did not know what type equipment Egypt might furnish, thought it might be either British or Czech. Added he preferred new Czech-type equipment now in Egypt;

(4) Unless Egyptians came through on offer within 10 days, Syria would have little or no choice but to accept a direct offer from Czechs made at a very low price to Syrian officer now in Prague.²

Moose

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 783.5–MSP/1–2456. Confidential. Repeated to Cairo, London, Amman, Baghdad, Beirut, and Paris.
2. On February 20, the Embassy in Damascus reported in telegram 765 that according to a local source the Syrian Government had opened a $22 million letter of credit through an Arab bank for Czechoslovak tanks and other military equipment. (Ibid., 783.56/2–2056) On February 22, Chief of Staff Shuqayr confirmed that the Syrian Government had decided to buy arms from Czechoslovakia. Shuqayr explained that formalities had not yet been completed, but the decision in principle had been made. (Telegram 783 from Damascus, February 24; ibid., 783.56/2–2456) On March 8, Allen Dulles informed the 279th meeting of the National Security Council that the delivery of Soviet bloc arms to Syria had begun.