During the First World War, Britain and France agreed to partition the territory bordering northern Arabia, often called the Fertile Crescent, between themselves in anticipation of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse. Their 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement dismembered the region, creating artificial states without foundations. While the British held on to Iraq and Palestine, the French seized Syria, […]
The Battle Over Syria
The country has long been an arena of regional rivalry and foreign intervention.
