Iraq Appeals For More U.S. Aid

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28159, 24 December 1956, Page 11

Iraq Appeals For More U.S. Aid

(N .Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 22. Iraq has appealed to the United States for more and quicker military aid.

The Iraqi Ambassador, Mr Moussa ai-Shabandar, made the appeal during a meeting yesterday with the United States Undersecretary of State, Mr Herbert Hoover.

He told reporters later that he urged Mr Hoover to include more military aid for Iraq in the Eisenhower Administration’s new budget.

As a member of the Bagdad Pact, Iraq now receives aid funds under the Mutual Security Act.

Mr Al-Shabandar quoted Mr Hoover as saying that the United States stood firm in its position of support for the pact.

The Iraqi envoy also said that cutting by Syria of the oil pipeline through which Iraq ships its oil was costing Iraq 700,000 dollars a day. The Syrian Ambassador, Mr Farid Zcineddine, conferred with Mr Hoover shortly after the Under-Secretary’s meeting with the Iraqi Ambassador. Differing versions of what was said at that meeting were given by Mr Zeineddine and a State Department spokesman. Mr Zeineddine implied that Syria had rejected a United States request to begin immediate emergency repairs on the sabotaged oil pipeline. He told reporters that all British, French and Israeli troops must get out of Egypt before any such work could begin. He said that his government had called in the director ’of the Iraq Petroleum Company to discuss the repairing of the pipeline. The State Department spokesman, Mr Lincoln White, told reporters that Mr Zeineddine assured Mr Hoover that Syria would place no obstacles in the way of repairing the pipeline.

He said that Mr Zeineddine made no mention of withdrawals from Egypt.