1FOREIGN- RELATIONS, 1949, VOLUME VI


    Various disagreements arose thereafter between theSyrian Govern-
  ment and TAPLINE and anti-TAPLINE student demonstrations
  erupted. The Syrian Government thereupon postponed consideration
  of the agreement by Parliament (telegram 114, March-8,2 p. m., from
  Damascus, 890D.00/3-849).
    The Syrian- Government was overthrown on-March 30 in a coup led
 by Colonel ,Husni Zaim; for relevant documentation, see pages 1630 fr.
 The Husni Government approved the TAPLINE agreemenft and it
 was ratified by Legislative Decree No. 74 on May 16 (telegram 284,
 May 17, 8 p.m., from Damascus, 890D.6363/5-1749).
   An internal weekly summary report of the Department of State,
 entitled Current Economic Developments, noted that Syrian ratifica-
 tion of the TAPLINE agreement "removes the last major barrier to
 the building of the long1 pending Trans-Arabian pipeline.... The
 project is now due for completion sometime in 1950-about a year
 behind the origin l schedule. Approval of-the transit agreement was
 delayed by the Syrians for many months partly in disapproval of the
 US position regarding Palestine. The matter was further complicated
 by the political coup in Syria during March.
   "The recent approval by the inter-departmental Export Review
 Board of the first and second quarter steel exports for 1949 removed
 another impediment to construction of the pipeline. Export licenses
 had been suspended for almost a year because of disturbed conditions
 in the Middle East. When completed,-the Tapline is to have a capacity
 of 300,000 to 450,000 barrels a day-and will extend for almost 1,100
 miles from Saudi Arabia to the ,Mediterranean port of Sidon -in Leba-
 non." (Page 6.of summary report 2013, dated May 23, 1949. It was
 prepared by the Policy Information Committee of the Department and
 is found in the files of the Foreign Reporting Division of the Bureau
 of Economic Affairs, lot 70-D467.)
 A second pipeline company, the Middle East Pipeline Company
 (MEPCO), entered into negotiations with the Syrian Government
 early in 1949. The-pipeline was planned to extend from Abadan, Iran,
 to an Arab city on the Mediterranean, to move oil owned by the Anglo-
 Iranian Oil Company and the Kuwait Oil Company to be sold to the
 Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.and. the: Socony,-Vacuum Oil
 Company. The negotiations, like those involving TAPLINE, were
 not successful until the accession to power of Colonel -usni. Appar-ý
 ently it was early in June that the Syrian Government signed an agree-
 ment with4 MEPCO (telegram 2247, June 10, 6 p. im., from London,
 890D.6363/6-1049).
 A MEPC official, on November 22, informed officers of the Depart-
ment that his company had postponed orders for "34-36 inch pipe


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