Iraq: From Razzak to Bazzaz

President Abdul Salem Aref had two reasons to be grateful last week. Not only could he thank his brother, Abdul Rahman, for putting down an attempted coup during his absence in Morocco (TIME, Sept. 24). He now basked in the blessing of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, who assured Baghdad's boss that he had no connection whatsoever with the wily pro-Nasser rebels who sparked the revolt.

With that, Aref could get back to the business of running his country. To replace overzealous Premier Aref Abdel Razzak, who fled into exile when the coup failed, Aref chose Abdel Rahman Bazzaz, a political moderate linked to no party, and onetime ambassador to Egypt and Britain. In his first press conference, Bazzaz sought to mollify all segments of Iraq's traditionally unruly citizens. He told the Nasserites that his government would work for eventual "federal union" with Egypt, made businessmen happy by blasting Marxism, and tried to appeal to left-wing intellectuals by advocating non-Marxist socialism. His goal, said Bazzaz, was to create a flourishing Iraq where there would be no need of "courts-martial, coups d'état and tanks in the streets."

Judging by past experience, Bazzaz' chances were not bright. As an early Moslem conqueror put it: "If you want a people to order and be obeyed, you have Egypt; if you want a people to feed and be obeyed, you have Syria; but if you waift a people who revolt against wrong and right, you have Iraq."