Following the July 17 Revolution, the Ba'ath Party assumed power in Iraq and turned to the Soviet Union as its principal supplier of arms. Between 1968 and 1970 the Iraqi Army underwent a second major rearmament programme with Soviet assistance. However, the Soviet government used this relationship to exert political pressure on the Ba'athist regime. Iraqi officials also believed the Soviets were withholding their most sophisticated weapons from export and therefore embarked on a diversification effort to find secondary suppliers of arms, preferably in the West. In 1972 the Ba'ath Party repaid France for not opposing its nationalisation of Iraqi oil by placing an order for some AML-90s. Estimates of the number initially sold and delivered to Iraq vary from 8 to 38; however, it is clear that this largely symbolic purchase was instrumental in re-igniting defence ties with France. In 1974 the Iraqis placed a second order for another 20 AML-60s and 42 AML-90s, and subsequently for 2 AML-60s and 25 AML-90s. Most of the orders were small and timed to coincide with Iraqi requests for access to far more advanced French defence technology, but they rapidly accumulated; Panhard recorded the sale of 131 AML-60s and 101 AML-90s to Iraq between 1972 and 1980.