ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the Second World War sharpened internal differences in Iraq and caused increasing and conflicting pressures on Nuri al-Sa'id. Relations with Germany were broken off by Iraq on 5 September 1939; relations with Italy were not severed and remained a point of controversy until the end of the Iraqi-British collusion in May-June 1941 and the escape of Rashid 'Ali, the Mufti and al-Sabbagh. The nationalists sought to exploit Britain's difficult situation early in the war by making co-operation with London conditional on British concessions to them. In October 1939, the Mufti of Palestine, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, arrived in Iraq, having escaped from his place of exile in Lebanon. As Britain's overall wartime situation in the Middle East became more precarious, mainly because of the German advances in North Africa, but also partly because of the Vichy influence in Syria, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill became more determined to wipe out German influence in Syria and Iraq.
