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Former Iraq Foreign Minister Suggested As Palestine Arabs’ Counselor

March 25, 1938
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A plan which would bring Nuri Pasha es-Said, former Prime Minister of Iraq, to Palestine as counselor to the Arab nationalist cause, is being discussed in Arab political circles here. The idea cropped up during consideration of the course the Arabs should take with regard to forthcoming investigation by the Palestine Partition Commission headed by Sir John Woodhead.

Some Arabs regard the suggestion as having been inspired by Nuri Pasha himself as part of his campaign to regain the power which he wielded briefly when he was responsible for arranging the termination of the Arab strike of 1936. Others take it seriously as a method for uniting support in other Arab countries for the Palestine Arab cause. These leaders say the Arabs must cooperate with the commission.

The plan, as far as it has been formulated up to now, is that the Palestine Arabs shall invite Nuri Pasha and other political leaders in the Arab Kingdoms to come to Palestine and represent the Arabs before the new commission, which is charged with investigating the question of fixing boundaries for the Jewish and Arab States proposed in the Peel Commission’s partition plan.

There is apparent in this proposal the germ of a conflict between Nuri Pasha and the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini. The latter’s followers are insisting that in dealing with the boundaries commission he and his aides, now in exile in Syria, are the advisers who should be consulted.

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