Nuri al-Said
Nuri Pasha al-Said Al-Qaraghuli Al-Zubaidi CH was an Iraqi politician and statesman who served eight terms as Prime Minister of Iraq. He served in various key cabinet and governmental positions in Iraq during its British Mandate and post-independence Hashemite period.
From his first appointment as prime minister under the British Mandate in 1930, Nuri was a major political figure in Iraq under the monarchy. The 1930 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty granted Britain permanent military prerogatives in Iraq, but also paved the way for the country's nominal independence and entry as a member of the League of Nations in 1932. Nuri was forced to flee the country after the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état which brought a pro-Nazi government to power, but following a British-led intervention he was re-installed as prime minister.
During the early fifties, Nuri's government negotiated a fifty-fifty profit-sharing agreement on royalties with the Iraq Petroleum Company as oil began to play a significant role in the Iraqi economy. The agreement, along with the establishment of the Iraqi Development Board, provided for a series of ambitious schemes and projects to foster comprehensive economic growth in Iraq, and the private sector came to dominate the country's economic activity. However, the working conditions of the poor remained poorly addressed, which further contributed to the growth of anti-monarchist sentiment. The formation of the Baghdad Pact in 1955 exacerbated discontent in the country.
A controversial figure throughout most of his career, Nuri was deeply unpopular amongst several segments of Iraqi society by the end of 1950s. His political views, regarded as a blend of Iraqi nationalism, Conservatism, pro-Western sentiment, anti-Communism, and anti-Nasserism, were believed by his detractors to have failed in adapting to the country's changed social circumstances. Under his rule, the historical Iraqi Jewish community fled in mass. A coup d'état took place in July 1958 and led to the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy. Nuri attempted to flee the country but was captured and killed.
Early career
He was born in Baghdad to middle class Sunni Muslim Arab family. His father was a minor government accountant. Nuri graduated from the Ottoman Military College in Istanbul in 1906, trained at the staff college there in 1911 as an officer in the Ottoman Army and was among the officers dispatched to Ottoman Tripolitania in 1912 to resist the Italian occupation of that province. He was an elusive guerrilla leader, with Jaafar Al-Askari, against the British in Libya in 1915.After being captured and held prisoner by the British in Egypt during World War I, he and Jaafar were converted to the Arab nationalist cause and fought in the Arab Revolt under Emir Faisal ibn Hussain of the Hejaz, who would later reign briefly as King of Arab Syria before he was installed as King of Iraq. On one operation Nuri rode with T. E. Lawrence and his British Army driver as crew of a Rolls-Royce Armoured Car.
Like other Iraqi officers who had served under Faisal, he went on to emerge as part of a new political elite.
Political career
Initial positions under Iraqi monarchy
Nuri headed the Arab troops who took Damascus for Faisal in the wake of the retreating Ottoman forces in 1918. When Faisal was deposed by the French in 1920, Nuri followed the exiled monarch to Iraq, and in 1922 became first director general of the Iraqi police force. He used the position to fill the force with his placemen, a tactic that he would repeat in subsequent positions; that was a basis of his considerable political clout in later years.He was a trusted ally of Faisal who, in 1924, appointed him deputy commander in chief of the army so as to ensure the loyalty of the troops to the regime. Once again, Nuri used the position to build up his own power base. During the 1920s, he supported the king's policy to build up the nascent state's armed forces, based on the loyalty of Sharifian officers, the former Ottoman soldiers who formed the backbone of the regime.
Prime Minister for first time
Faisal first proposed Nuri as prime minister in 1929, but it was only in 1930 that the British were persuaded to forgo their objections. As in previous appointments, Nuri was quick to appoint supporters to key government positions, but that only weakened the king's own base among the civil service, and the formerly close relationship between the two men soured. Among Nuri's first acts as prime minister was the signing of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, an unpopular move since it essentially confirmed Britain's mandatory powers and gave them permanent military prerogatives in the country even after full independence was achieved. In 1932, he presented the Iraqi case for greater independence to the League of Nations.In October 1932, Faisal dismissed Nuri as Prime Minister and replaced him with Naji Shawkat, which curbed Nuri's influence somewhat; after the death of Faisal the following year and the accession of Ghazi, his access to the palace decreased. Further impeding his influence was the rise of Yasin al-Hashimi, who would become prime minister for the first time in 1935. Nevertheless, Nuri continued to hold sway among the military establishment, and his position as a trusted ally of the British meant that he was never far from power. In 1933, the British persuaded Ghazi to appoint him foreign minister, a post he held until the Bakr Sidqi coup in 1936. As foreign minister, he emphasized Arab unity and tried to mediate regarding the Peel Commission between the British government and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann in 1936. However, his close ties to the British, which helped him remain in important positions of state, also destroyed any remaining popularity.
Intriguing with army
The Bakr Sidqi coup showed the extent to which Nuri had tied his fate to that of the British in Iraq: he was the only politician of the toppled government to seek refuge in the British Embassy, and his hosts sent him into exile in Egypt. He returned to Baghdad in August 1937 and began plotting his return to power in collaboration with Colonel Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh. That so perturbed Prime Minister Jamil al-Midfai that he persuaded the British that Nuri was a disruptive influence who would be better off abroad. They obliged by convincing Nuri to take up residence in London as the Iraqi ambassador. Despairing perhaps of his relationship with Ghazi, he now began to secretly suggest co-operation with the House of Saud.Back in Baghdad in October 1938, Nuri re-established contact with al-Sabbagh and persuaded him to overthrow the Midfai government. Al-Sabbagh and his cohorts launched their coup on 24 December 1938, and Nuri was reinstated as prime minister. He sought to sideline the king by promoting the position and possible succession of the latter's half-brother Prince Zaid. Simultaneously, the British were irritated by Ghazi's increasingly nationalistic broadcasts on his private radio station. In January 1939, the king further aggrieved Nuri by appointing Rashid Ali al-Gaylani head of the Royal Divan. Nuri's campaign against his rivals continued in March of that year when he claimed to have unmasked a plot to murder Ghazi and used it as an excuse to carry out a purge of the army's officer corps.
When Ghazi died in a car crash on 4 April 1939, Nuri was widely suspected of being implicated in his death. At the royal funeral, crowds chanted, "You will answer for the blood of Ghazi, Nuri". He supported the accession of 'Abd al-Ilah as regent for Ghazi's successor, Faisal II, who was still a minor. The new regent was initially susceptible to Nuri's influence.
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Soon, Germany and Britain were at war. In accordance with Article 4 of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, Iraq was committed to declaring war on Germany. Instead, in an effort to maintain a neutral position, Nuri announced that Iraqi armed forces would not be employed outside of Iraq. While German officials were deported, Iraq would not declare war.
By then, affairs in Europe had begun to affect Iraq; the Battle of France in June 1940 encouraged some Arab nationalist elements to seek, in the style of the United States and Turkey, to move toward neutrality toward Germany and Italy rather than being part of the British war effort. While Nuri generally was more pro-British, al-Sabbagh moved into the camp more positively oriented toward Germany. The loss of his main military ally meant that Nuri "quickly lost his ability to affect events".
Co-existence with regent in the 1940s
In April 1941, the pro-neutrality elements seized power, installing Rashid Ali al-Kaylani as prime minister. Nuri fled to British-controlled Transjordan; his protectors then sent him to Cairo, but after occupying Baghdad they brought him back, installing him as prime minister under the British occupation. He would retain the post for over two and half years, but from 1943 onward, the regent obtained a greater say in the selection of his ministers and began to assert greater independence. Iraq remained under British military occupation until late 1947. He served as the President of the Senate of Iraq from July 1945 to November 1946, and from 1948 to January 1949.The regent's brief flirtation with more liberal policies in 1947 did little to stave off the problems that the established order was facing. The social and economic structures of the country had changed considerably since the establishment of the monarchy, with an increased urban population, a rapidly growing middle class, and increasing political consciousness among the peasants and the working class, in which the Iraqi Communist Party was playing a growing role. However, the political elite, with its strong ties and shared interests with the dominant classes, was unable to take the radical steps that might have preserved the monarchy. The attempt by the elite to retain power during the last ten years of the monarchy, Nuri rather than the regent would increasingly play the dominant role, thanks largely to his superior political skills.