Iraq

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War with Israel

Throughout 1945 and 1946 the Kurdish tribes of northeastern Iraq were in a state of unrest—supported, it was believed, by the USSR. The British, fearing Soviet encroachment on the Iraqi oil fields, moved troops into Iraq. In 1947 Said began to advocate a new proposal for a federated Arab state. This time he suggested that Transjordan (present-day Jordan) and Iraq be united, and he began negotiations with the king of Transjordan regarding this proposal. In April 1947 a treaty of kinship and alliance was signed by the two kingdoms, providing for mutual military and diplomatic aid.

Immediately following the declaration of independence by Israel in May 1948, the armies of Iraq and Transjordan invaded the new state. Iraq initially only fielded 5,000 men, although it later tripled this number. Throughout the rest of the year Iraqi armed forces continued to fight the Israelis, and the nation continued to work politically with the kingdom of Transjordan. In September Iraq joined Abdullah ibn Hussein, king of Transjordan, in denouncing the establishment of an Arab government in Palestine as being “tantamount to recognizing the partition of Palestine” into Jewish and Arab states, which Iraq had consistently opposed. With the general defeat of the Arab forces attacking Israel, however, the government of Iraq prepared to negotiate an armistice, represented by Transjordan. On May 11, 1949, a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Transjordan was signed, but Iraqi units continued to fight Israelis in an Arab-occupied area in north central Palestine. Transjordanian troops replaced the Iraqi units in this area under the terms of the armistice agreement, signed on April 3, 1949.

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Oil Accords and Elections

Royalties paid to the government of Iraq by the Iraq Petroleum Company increased substantially under accords reached in 1950 and 1951. By the terms of an even more advantageous arrangement, concluded in February 1952, Iraq obtained 50 percent of the profits. In 1953 the 911-km (566-mi) Kirkūk-Bāniyās (Syria) pipeline of the Iraq Petroleum Company was formally opened.

The first parliamentary elections based on direct suffrage took place on January 17, 1953, but on a nonparty basis. A pro-Western government dominated by powerful Sunni Arab landlords was formed. King Faisal II formally assumed the throne on May 2, 1953, his 18th birthday. Iraq’s society was hobbled by an extremely unequal social structure in which a few thousand wealthy, mainly Sunni Arab families owned half the arable land. Large numbers of Iraqis were sharecroppers or landless peasants.

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Pro-Western Pacts

In February 1955 Iraq concluded the Baghdād Pact, a mutual-security treaty with Turkey fostered by the United States as a way of creating a Middle Eastern bulwark against Soviet influence in the area. Advancing plans to transform the alliance into a Middle Eastern defense system, the two countries urged the other Arab states, the United States, Britain, and Pakistan to adhere to the pact. Britain joined the alliance in April; Pakistan became a signatory in September and Iran in November. That month the five nations established the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO).

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Suez Crisis

In July 1956 Jordan (as Transjordan had been renamed) accused Israel of deploying an invasion army near Jerusalem, whereupon Iraq moved forces to the Jordanian border. That same month, in response to Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal, which Britain and France had controlled, the Iraqi government expressed unequivocal support of Egypt. In the ensuing Suez Crisis, Egypt was invaded by Israel, Britain, and France in October 1956. Within a week, however, the United Nations, at the urging of both the USSR and the United States, demanded a cease-fire, forcing Britain, France, and Israel to withdraw from the lands they had captured. In early November, Iraqi and Syrian troops occupied positions in Jordan in accordance with terms of a mutual-defense agreement.

In January 1957 Iraq endorsed the recently promulgated Eisenhower Doctrine. This doctrine stated that the United States would supply military assistance to any Middle Eastern government whose stability was threatened by communist aggression.

As the peasant population began to move to the cities and receive an education, significant numbers of Iraqis from a poor background began to join or sympathize strongly with mass radical parties. Vast inequalities of wealth and opportunity fanned these discontents. The three most important parties were the Communist Party of Iraq, the secular Arab nationalist Baath Socialist Party, and the Shiite Da`wa Party. The Da`wa was founded in the late 1950s as a response to the other two parties, and aimed at creating an Islamic state.

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Arab Union

In February 1958, following a conference between Faisal II and Hussein I, king of Jordan, Iraq and Jordan were federated. The new union, later named the Arab Union of Jordan and Iraq, was established as a countermeasure to the United Arab Republic (UAR), a federation of Egypt and Syria formed in February of that year. The constitution of the newly formed federation was proclaimed simultaneously in Baghdād and Amman on March 19, and the document was ratified by the Iraqi parliament on May 12. Later that month Nuri as-Said, former prime minister of Iraq, was named premier of the Arab Union.