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

6. Telegram From the Embassy in Iraq to the Department of State¹

Baghdad, January 17, 1955—4 p.m.

456. Nuri, who is again somewhat indisposed, asked me to call at his home this morning.

He said he was disturbed over the campaign being conducted against him by Nasir. He felt it was wholly unjustified.

Turkish-Iraq relations, he went on, have been close since the early 20s. The closeness of these direct relations was underscored and their scope defined in the treaty of 1946.² What he had done last week in his talks with Menderes was in keeping with traditional Iraq-Turkish relations and within the spirit and framework of the 1946 treaty. “I have done no wrong,” Nuri stressed at this point.

Continuing, he said that he was responsible only to the people of Iraq and to parliament. He was not responsible to any other country or government. He was sensitive, though, to Iraq’s relations with her Arab neighbors. For that reason he had asked Turkish Prime Minister on his visits to Arab capitals to explain the nature of the agreement reached between the two countries.

Egypt, he said, has on occasion acted independently in the past. She had a right to do this and he had not objected. The most recent occasion was the agreement that Egypt worked out with British on Suez. Neither Iraq nor any other Arab country had been consulted by Egypt on that occasion.

Regardless of the opposition from Egypt, Nuri said he was going to push ahead with the formulation of the treaty with Turkey.

He now had a request to make. He had earlier today made a similar request to Hooper, British Chargé.

He wished our respective Governments to instruct our representatives in Cairo to approach the Egyptian Government with a view to arresting this campaign against him and the proposed treaty with Turkey. It would help to have our two Governments tell the Egyptian Government that we regarded what was done in Baghdad last week as normal and constructive. He hoped this could be done before Arab League meeting called by, Fawzi for January 22.

I have seen Hooper and confirmed that Nuri spoke to him substantially along the same lines as he did with me and that Hooper is telegraphing the Foreign Office.

I suggest that, unless Cairo Embassy has already done so, it immediately make known to the Egyptian Government US views as outlined in Department’s 1 100 January 14 to Cairo.³

Gallman

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 682.87/1–1755. Secret; Priority. Repeated to Cairo, London, Ankara, Karachi, Tehran, Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Tel Aviv, and Jidda.
2. For text, see 37 UNTS 226.
3. Document 4.