Embassy Of The Republic Of Iraq history

In 1831, Chargé d’Affaires David Porter became the first American diplomat in the Ottoman Empire, at the capital city of Constantinople.

John Henry Haynes was appointed on August 10, 1888 as the first American Consul for Baghdad, which was in the part of the Ottoman Empire that later became modern Iraq.

He initially fulfilled his duties as Consul for Baghdad while residing in Constantinople, Turkey, until he presented his credentials to the Ottoman authorities in Baghdad on January 8, 1889.

Around 1900 B.C., a group of Semites called Amorites had managed to gain control of most of the Mesopotamia region.

Baghdad was integrated into the Ottoman Empire until 1918, except for a brief Safavid reoccupation from 1623 to 1638.

Diplomatic relations and the American Legation in Iraq were established on March 30, 1931, when Alexander K. Sloan (then serving as Consul in Iraq) was appointed Chargé d’Affaires of the American Legation at Baghdad.

On May 28, 1958, the United States recognized the Arab Union that formed between Iraq and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on May 19, 1958.

In 1959 Iraq officially left the pro-Western Baghdad Pact, but, though the Qāsim government came to depend on Soviet weapons and received some economic aid, it retained lively commercial ties with the West.

He opened negotiations with the Iraq Petroleum Company to increase Iraq’s share of the royalties, but his extreme demands caused negotiations to break down in 1961.

The Baʿath-ʿĀrif regime (February–November 1963) had little time for foreign policy formulation, as the various party factions were far too busy fighting one another.

In May 1964 a new provisional constitution was promulgated in which the principles of Arab unity and socialism were adopted, and in July the banks and a number of the country’s industries were nationalized.

In September 1965 ʿĀrif invited ʿAbd al-Raḥman al-Bazzāz, a distinguished lawyer, diplomat, and writer on Arab nationalism, to form a new government.

Military officers pressured the new president, ʿAbd al-Raḥman ʿĀrif, elder brother of the late president, to remove al-Bazzāz, and the cabinet resigned in August 1966.

The reasons given were the corruption of the ʿĀrif regime, Kurdish disturbances in the north, the government’s failure to adequately support other Arab countries in the Six-Day War of 1967, and ʿĀrif’s subservience to Nasser’s Egypt.

However, in late 1968 fighting between the Kurds and the Iraqi army began once again and escalated to full-scale warfare.

Most were supporters of Nasser, who, despite the best efforts of the regime, maintained a following within the military until his death in 1970.

In March 1972 Baʿathist and ICP leaders met to discuss the content of the charter and express their views about basic principles such as socialism, democracy, and economic development.

The Kurdish war started in March 1974.

In 1979 Al-Bakr resigned the presidency and Saddam Hussein became the president of Iraq . Since 1979 and for over three decades, Iraq ‘s standing in the international community has been steadily eroded by the disastrous foreign policy of the former regime.

Economic development to 1980

The United States resumed diplomatic relations with Iraq and elevated the United States Interests Section in Baghdad to Embassy status on November 26, 1984, when President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz concluded an agreement to that effect.

The Embassy in Baghdad was closed January 12, 1991, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the application of international sanctions against Iraq, and the buildup of military forces in the region.

A coalition of countries led by United States and British forces invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, and seized Baghdad on April 9.