 | Nuri as-Said: Encyclopedia II - Nuri as-Said - Intriguing with the army 1937 - 1940
Nuri as-Said - Intriguing with the army 1937 - 1940
The Bakr Sidqi coup showed the extent to which Nuri had tied his fate to that of the British role in Iraq: he was the only politician of the overthrown 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 intriguing to return to power, discussing possible steps with Colonel Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh. This perturbed the then prime minister, Jamil al-Midfa'i, sufficiently that he persuaded the British that Nuri was a disruptive influence who would be better off abroad, and they obliged by persuading him to take up the position of Iraqi ambassador to Britain. Despairing perhaps of his relationship with Ghazi, he now began to secretly suggest co-operation with the Saudi royal family.
Back in Baghdad in October 1938, Nuri again contacted al-Sabbagh, and persuaded him to overthrow the al-Midfa'i government. Al-Sabbagh and his cohorts accordingly launched their coup on the 24 December 1938, and Nuri was reinstated as prime minister. In this position, he sought to sideline the king, and promote the position, and possible succession, of the latter's half-brother Prince Zaid. Meanwhile Ghazi was also annoying the British, with increasingly nationalistic broadcasts on his private radio station. In January 1939 the king further aggrieved Nuri by appointing Rashid `Ali al-Gailani head of the Royal Diwan. Nuri’s campaign against rivals continued in March 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 officer corps.
King Ghazi died in a car crash on 4 April 1939. Nuri was widely suspected to have been involved in his death, and at the king’s 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.
Affairs in Europe now began to add to the factors already troubling Iraq, with the Fall of France in June 1940 encouraging some patriotic elements to place their hopes in a German victory in Second World War. While Nuri remained loyal to Britain, al-Sabbagh moved into the pro-German camp. This loss of his main military ally meant that Nuri “quickly lost his ability to affect events” (Batatu, p. 345).
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Intriguing with the army 1937 - 1940", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
