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The government announced that it honored its contract with the Iraq Petroleum Co. (predominantly British, French and American), though it was also interested in "modifying" the fifty-fifty contract by negotiation—as Nuri had been too. The new government proclaimed its withdrawal from the Arab Union with Jordan and signed a treaty of mutual defense with Nasser, but then astonished everyone by asserting, in the words of Hashim Jawad, its new delegate to the U.N., that "Iraq has never renounced the Baghdad Pact. It has never been considered." And he added: "Our friendship to the United States is still the same."