Nuri al-Said

Nuri al-Said (born 1888, Baghdad, Ottoman Empire [now in Iraq]—died July 15, 1958, Baghdad) was an Iraqi army officer, statesman, and political leader who maintained close ties with Great Britain during and after the mandate period (1921–32) and worked toward Arab unity.

Nuri was commissioned in the Ottoman army in 1909, when Iraq was a province of the Ottoman Empire. During World War I (1914–18) he participated in Ottoman military operations against the British. He was soon captured by the British, however, and in 1916 he joined the Sharīfian Arab army led by Emir Faisal I, which Great Britain was supporting in a revolt against Ottoman rule in the Arab provinces; Nuri distinguished himself in battle. At the war’s end Faisal established a short-lived Arab state, centred in Damascus, and Nuri served actively in its administration. After the French destroyed this state in 1920, Faisal became the first king of Iraq (1921). Nuri returned to occupy a number of influential positions, including that of prime minister in 1930. In this capacity, Nuri negotiated a 20-year treaty with Great Britain that, although maintaining substantial British influence, granted independence to Iraq.

Nuri served as prime minister on 14 different occasions, remaining faithful to two dominant policies: a pro-British attitude and support of the Hashemite dynasty, which King Faisal represented until his death in 1933. Neither of these beliefs was shared by the rising generation of younger army officers, and at the beginning of World War II open conflicts developed. Nuri wished to support the British by declaring war against Germany and breaking off diplomatic relations with Italy. He was opposed by influential army officers, who in April 1941 supported a coup under the leadership of Rashid Ali. Nuri and the king fled into exile. The British defeated the government of Rashid Ali in open warfare. Nuri then returned to Iraq and served as prime minister under British sponsorship in 1941–44.

Nuri maintained political order in Iraq while advocating a union of several Arab nations into a single state. Iraq became a charter member of the Arab League in 1945. Through tough and effective use of the police and the press, Nuri repressed critics of the Iraqi crown and eliminated opportunities for army intervention.

Violent nationalist feeling in Iraq after World War II precluded renewal of the Anglo-Iraqi treaty, despite Nuri’s ardent support. In 1955 the United States sponsored the Baghdad Pact, a mutual security agreement among Middle Eastern states, and Nuri saw Iraqi membership as a solution to the troublesome problem of the Anglo-Iraqi treaty. He hoped to induce other Arab states to join the pact and then assert leadership of the Arab unity movement and secure popular support in Iraq. Popular resentment against the West, however, had become too widespread for the Baghdad Pact to serve these ends. When Nuri sponsored an Arab union with Jordan in February 1958 (Jordan was closely allied with the West), Iraqi army units, under the leadership of ʿAbd al-Karīm Qāsim, overthrew the monarchy. Nuri was assassinated by a mob following the revolution of July 1958.