Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930

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The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 was a treaty of alliance between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the British-Mandate-controlled administration of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq. The treaty was between the governments of George V the United Kingdom and Faisal I of Iraq. High Commissioner Francis Humphrys signed for the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Nuri as-Said signed for Iraq. The 1930 treaty was based upon an earlier Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922 but took into account Iraq's increased importance to British interests given new oil finds made in 1927.

During the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War, the British Army (alongside troops from the Commonwealth), fighting on the side of Allies, defeated the forces of the Ottoman Empire, fighting on the side the Central Powers. After the end of the First World War, British troops remained in the region which became the Kingdom of Iraq. In 1920, after the Ottoman Empire was partitioned, the United Kingdom formally established control over what was to become Iraq under a mandate from the League of Nations.^[1][2]

The Kingdom of Iraq began with the coronation of King Faisal I on 23 August 1921. The 1930 treaty provided a path towards nominal independence for Iraq two years later at the termination of the mandate and upon the entry of Iraq itself as a member of the League of Nations.^[3] The main purpose of the treaty was to give the British a variety of commercial and military rights within the country after independence.^[4][5]

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Anglo-Iraqi Treaty

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was to write that the 1930 treaty provided that the British could maintain air bases near Basra and Habbaniya "in times of peace" and have the right of transit for military forces and supplies "at all times". In addition, Churchill indicated that the treaty would provide "all possible facilities" including the use of railways, rivers, ports, and airways for the passage of armed forces "during times of war".^[6][7]

The treaty gave the British almost unlimited rights to base military forces in Iraq. It further provided for the unconditional and unlimited right of the British to move troops into or through Iraq. In 1941, the terms of the treaty were used to justify a British invasion and the occupation of Iraq after a nationalist coup whose leaders had contacts among the Axis powers.^[8]

The British used the terms of the treaty as a basis for a military occupation that lasted until end of 1947. As they prepared to depart Iraq, an attempt was made to get the Iraqi government to sign a new military treaty giving the British greater powers than under the 1930 treaty. While that treaty was approved, it never came into effect because of unrest and large demonstrations in Iraq against it (the Al-Wathbah uprising).^[9]

• Churchill, Winston (1950). The Second World War, Volume III, The Grand Alliance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Lyman, Robert (2006). Iraq 1941: The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad. Campaign. Oxford, New York: Osprey Publishing. pp. 96. ISBN 1-84176-991-6.

• "Free Baghdad". Time. 14 July 1930. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2009.