Sykes-Picot, a dangerous agreement that divided the Arab world

CAIRO – 16 May 2021: May 16, 1916, is an important date because of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the disasters that resulted from it that resulted in the division of the Arab region into several countries.

The agreement is a secret agreement and understanding signed between France and the United Kingdom, with the ratification of the Russian Empire, to divide the Fertile Crescent (The Tigris and Euphrates River Basin, and the coastal part of the Levant), between France and Britain to define areas of influence in West Asia after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which controls this region, in the First World War.

France acquired the largest part of the western flank of the Fertile Crescent (Syria and Lebanon) next to the Mosul region in Iraq.

As for Britain, its areas of control extended from the southern part of the Levant, expanding eastward to include Baghdad, Basra and all the areas between the Arabian Gulf and the French region in Syria.

It was decided that Palestine would fall under an international administration to be agreed upon in consultation between Britain, France and Russia, however, the agreement stipulated that Britain would be granted the ports of Haifa and Acre, provided that France would be free to use the port of Haifa. 

In return, France granted Britain to use the port of Iskenderun, which it would have had.

Later, after the declaration of the former British foreign secretary, the Balfour effect, the agreement was relaxed, but with the same terms of the agreement.

This was after the Council of the League of Nations approved the mandate documents for the regions concerned by a new agreement known as Lausanne.

Under the Treaty of Lausanne, the northern Syrian territories were ceded to Ataturk Turkey, in addition to some areas that had been given to Greece in the previous London Treaty.

This agreement and what was followed by Greater Syria or the Arab Mashreq were divided into states and political entities that established the borders drawn under this agreement and the resulting agreements: Iraq - Syria - Lebanon - Jordan - Palestine (including the lands that became Israel).