Iraq: A Moderate Choice

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The presence of some 4,000 Egyptian troops has helped thwart six anti-government plots in the past year alone in coup-happy Iraq. After a helicopter crash did what the attempted coups had failed to do and killed President Abdul Salam Aref (TIME, April 22), Egypt's President Nasser wanted to be sure that Iraq's new ruler would be as friendly to Egyptian aims as Aref. Off to Baghdad went Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer, Egypt's No. 2 man, ostensibly to attend Aref's funeral but essentially to see that Nasser got what he wanted. Last week, with a nudge from the Egyptians, Iraq's Cabinet and top generals picked an underdog as Aref's successor. The new President: Abdel Rahman Aref, 50, the dead President's older brother and the acting chief of the armed services.

Though the choice may have seemed logical to the outside world, it came about by a circuitous process. In the initial balloting, Aref was the last choice. The generals wanted Major General Abdel Aziz Uqaili, Iraq's Defense Minister, who favors an all-out war to exterminate Iraq's rebellious Kurdish minority. The Cabinet wanted Premier Abdel Rahman Bazzaz, who would slow state socialism. Favoring neither aim, Nasser wanted neither man. With Amer on hand to wield Egypt's influence, the Iraqis finally settled on Aref.

While his brother was hot-tempered and widely feared, new President Aref is a quiet, moderate man who has—if such a thing is possible in Iraq—practically no personal enemies. And his views are more easygoing, too. He feels that an all-out war on the Kurds—which Uqaili was preparing to prosecute in a big spring drive—is an operation that cannot succeed. In one of his first statements, he held out the prospect of local rule for the Kurds, which is as close as any Iraqi chief has come to meeting their demands for autonomy.