Musa al-Shabandar

On 10 October 1933, al-Shabandar was appointed as the consul of Switzerland by the Iraqi government.^[6] In 1937, al-Shabandar was accused of giving certificates of export to Iraq for munitions meant to reach Spain. As a result, he was recalled and put under house arrest. Although the proceedings against him were dropped he became the deputy for Amarah until 1939.^[7]

After Rashid Ali al-Gaylani took over the Iraqi government during the 1941 Iraqi Golden Square coup d'état, al-Shabandar became the foreign minister. Al-Shabandar stood out from the rest of al-Gaylani's government for being the only part of the ruling class and a wealthy landowner, owning property in Berlin, while the rest were in the middle class.^[8] Al-Shabandar would later recount in his memoirs that a majority of Arabs at the time had sympathy towards Nazi Germany due to frustrations with imperialism and Zionism. The issues of various Arab states, as well as Nazi propaganda, played a big effect on Iraqis' sympathy.^[9] Al-Shabandar was a supporter of al-Gaylani but on 29 May, he would flee to Tehran along with many Iraqi officials after al-Gaylani's government fell.^[10]

Al-Shabandar was later caught in Rhodesia and was sent back to Iraq to stand trail where he was sentenced to four years in prison in 1944. Al-Shabandar's sentence lasted until 1947, and in 1949, he would become a member of Nuri al-Said's Constitutional Union Party.^[7] Al-Said would also appoint al-Shabandar as the ambassador to Damascus during the presidency of Syrian military officer Husni al-Za'im in order to further develop Syrian-Iraqi relations.^[11]

Al-Shabandar returned to occupy the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali for a short period from March 8, 1954, until April 29, 1954. He also held the same position for a longer period from August 3, 1954, until May 8, 1955, in the government of Nuri al-Said.^{[citation needed]}

• Al-Shabandar, Musa (1993). Baghdadi Memories: Iraq between occupation and independence. Riad al-Rayes Books and Publishing.