611.87/7–2254
No. 1418
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and
African Affairs (Byroade)1
Subject:
- Conversation between Dr. Fadhil Jamali, Foreign Minister of Iraq, and the Secretary at dinner on Saturday, July 17th.
Participants:
- Dr. Fadhil Jamali, Foreign Minister of Iraq The Secretary
- Mr. Henry A. Byroade,NEA
In a side conversation at the dinner by the Iraqi Ambassador on Saturday, July 17th, Jamali again raised with the Secretary the question of federation moves with Syria. The Secretary was most emphatic with Jamali that any moves in this direction prior to Iraq joining the Turkish-Pakistan Pact would be a great mistake as far as the United States is concerned. The Secretary explained to Jamali the difficulties he had encountered domestically in going through with the military aid agreement with Iraq. We had gone ahead with this project in the conviction that Iraq would move to tie herself more closely to Turkey and Pakistan and the so-called “northern tier” grouping. If now it proved that Iraq’s next move was to the south, and towards Israel, this would place us in a most difficult position. The Secretary indicated he might have to re-examine our action under the US-Iraqi military aid agreement. Jamali seemed somewhat taken back by the Secretary’s remarks and asked if such a move would be tolerable from the United States point of view after Iraq’s joining with Turkey and Pakistan. The Secretary replied that in that case the move might be “tolerable” as far as we were concerned.
- A handwritten note in the margin indicates that the Secretary approved the memorandum of conversation.↩