Moscow, USSR – It was announced officially yesterday that at the request of the Iraqi government, the Soviet Union has agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Iraq and that ministers shortly will be exchanged between the two countries. Iraq had never before been willing to recognize the Soviet government.
Last Aug. 25, following conversations in Tehran between Iraq and Soviet plenipotentiaries, Foreign Minister Arshad al-Umari informed Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav M. Molotov that the Regency Council of nine-year-old King Faisal II wished to establish relations with the Soviet Union as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, Molotov telegraphed Arshad that the Soviet Union “highly esteems the feelings expressed by you regarding the Soviet Army. The Soviet government accepts with satisfaction the proposal of the Iraqi government for establishing diplomatic relations.”