IRAQ



INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES! IN THE POLITICAL RELATION-
SHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRAQ; ELEVATION OF
THE AMERICAN LEGATION AT BAGHDAD TO THE STATUS OF AN
EMBASSY1
890G.00/2-446
Memorandiom by Mr. Adrian B. Colquitt of the Division of Near
                          Eastern Affairs

SECRET                            [WASHINGTON,] February 4, 1946.
  A. (General Political. Our present policy toward Iraq is to coii-
tribute in every suitable way to the economic and cultural develop-
ment of that country, while giving appropriate encouragement to its
growing desire to achieve complete control of its own affairs and to
play a more important role in world affairs.
  In Iraq, as in other countries of the Near East, the Uiiited States
has cultural and commercial ties of long standing, and the policy of
this Government has been directed in recent years at protecting these
interests and at assuringr that American citizens and Aknerican inter-
ests are treated on a non-discriminatory basis. Such treatment was
provided for by a Tripartite Convention between the United States,
Great Britain and Iraq which was signed in 1930, when Iraq was
still a mandate.
  Iraq is still one of the less fully developed states, both politically
and economically, in the Near East. It is, noreover, a country in
which British interest for many years has been preponderant and in
which that interest has not diminished in recent years as it has in
certain other Near Eastern countries. The United States, in its rela-
tions withl Iraq, has not. sought, to undermine or oppose the influence
which the British Governmentt exercises over the political and eco-
nomic life of the country. It has been our practice, as it has been in
neighboring countries, to support the general lines of British policy
where such policy was not inimical to our own interests. This does
not mean, of course, that the United States has given its approval to
many of the British policies toward the Iraqi Government. It is
undeniable, however, that one of the reasons for the lack of a muore


  1 For documentation on the consideration given by the Department of State
in
1945 to elevating Legations of the United States in Iraq and other Near Eastern
countries to the status of Embassies, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. viii,
pp. 19 ff.
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