Iraq's Chargé Challenges American Economic Aid Priorities

Iraqi chargé d'affaires Abdullah Ibrahim Bakr challenged American aid priorities at a Washington meeting on 11 January 1950. Accompanied by embassy counselor Abdul Jalil Rawi, he told Assistant Secretary George McGhee that Iraqis saw discrimination in the contrast between assistance elsewhere and their own country's unmet needs. [1]

McGhee defended the limits of European recovery and assistance to Greece and Turkey, pointing instead to the proposed Point Four program and American support for Iraq's World Bank application. Bakr questioned why the bank had taken more than a year without approving the loan. He also asked whether the Export-Import Bank could finance an Iraqi oil refinery. [1]

McGhee replied that loans required demonstrated economic viability and that private finance was considered available for refineries. Bakr pressed the political urgency: development had to deliver tangible improvements if Iraq's younger ministers were to retain public confidence. [1]

Bakr warned that failure to improve living conditions could strengthen communism. [1]

Related Diplomats

1. Abdullah Ibrahim Bakr [1]

Related Reading

• Iraq and the United States
• Republic of Iraq