Anglo-Iraqi Treaty (1948)


The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1948, or Portsmouth treaty of 1948, was a treaty between Iraq and United Kingdom signed in Portsmouth, England, on 15 January 1948. The treaty was a revision of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty.
During World War II, the British had reoccupied Iraq to reverse a pro-Axis coup that had taken place in 1941, and through the Treaty at Portsmouth on 15 January 1948, Sayyid Salih Jabr negotiated British withdrawal from Iraq. However, the agreement consisted of a joint British and Iraqi defence board that oversaw Iraq's military planning. Additionally, the British continued control of Iraqi foreign affairs.
At the time of signing, Britains strategic goal was to form an anti-Soviet, pro British, Arab bloc. After having convinced Syria, Jordan and Egypt to join, the British conceded what was then the Palestine mandate area, that the UN had already approved the partition of into an Arab and Jewish states, to Iraq, and a military plan was agreed upon, whereby 2 Iraqi divisions, armed with modern British weapons, would sweep through Syria and Jordan, and join the Arab Legion of Jordan, in conquering the planned Jewish and Arab states. see Dr E. Nishri, 'The British Trojan Horse in the Israeli War of Liberation', published in Hebrew 2020) based on his doctoral thesis and British Government Archives.
Iraq would still be tied to the British for military supplies and training until 1973, a 25-year period that Arab nationalists in Iraq could not accept. As a staunch reaction to the Portsmouth Treaty, Iraqis led the Al-Wathbah uprising in protest of a continued British presence in Iraq. Al-Said repudiated the Portsmouth Treaty as a concession offered to the Iraqi and Arab nationalists, who rebelled.
The treaty was repudiated after the Free Officers coup in 1958 removed Faisal II from power, and his pro-Western policies were reversed.