ABSTRACT
Between 1945 and 1948, socio-political tension mounted steadily in Iraq. New elections to Parliament and relations with Britain, including relations with the national petroleum company, were considered as key issues in Iraqi social, political and economic affairs, and were therefore the main points of public debate and political controversy. The new government under al-Suwaydi, appointed in February 1946, came down in favour of demanding a new Iraqi-British treaty. In December 1945, the Regent surprised the Iraqi political public with a speech calling for the renewal of political life and the re-establishment of political parties and promising socioeconomic reforms. By the end of the war, the Palestine question was deeply rooted in Iraq's political life and had become an integral part of the awareness of Arab identity and the pan-Arab ideology to which the growth of political identity in Iraq had eventually led. The National Democratic Party was the largest moderately leftist party in Iraq.
