The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and France, with the assent of Russia; defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiation of the treaty occurred between November 1915 and March 1916. The agreement was concluded on 16 May 1916.

The agreement effectively divided the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire outside the Arabian peninsula into areas of future British and French imperial control or influence. The terms were negotiated by the French diplomat François Georges-Picot and British Sir Mark Sykes. The Russian Tsarist government was a minor party to the Sykes–Picot agreement, and when, following the Russian Revolution of October 1917, the Bolsheviks exposed the secret agreement, ‘the British were embarrassed, the Arabs dismayed and the Turks delighted.’

The agreement is seen by many as a turning point in Western–Arab relations. It did negate the promises made to Arabs through Colonel T. E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) for a national Arab homeland in the area of Greater Syria, in exchange for their siding with British forces against the Ottoman Empire. Almost 100 years later (2014), the jihadist organization ISIL uses Sykes-Picot as their rallying cry and have conquered Mosul and parts of northern Syria to form an Arab Caliphate along sectarian lines rather than definitions of European diplomats.

The agreement’s principal terms were reaffirmed by the inter-Allied San Remo Conference of 19–26 April 1920 and the ratification of the resulting League of Nations mandates by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922.

The creation of the artificial entity “Iraq” by Gertrude Bell and Winston Churchill after World War I, with the destruction of the Ottoman Empire, served the imperial interests of the British.

After years of deadly sanctions and bombing following the 1991 Gulf War, in 1998 President Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act. This was a precursor to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The war criminals in the Bush and Blair administrations lied about the pretexts and reasons for their preemptive, illegal and unconstitutional invasion of Iraq, aided by the disinformation and propaganda by regime stenographers in the establishment mainstream media to hoodwink and bamboozle their hapless electorates. The lies and dissembling concerning the war of aggression in Iraq have continued by the murderous drone-master Obama and his cohort.

In particular note the detailed maps putting forth the strategic formation for a new Middle East under the hegemony of the US, the UK, and their Saudi and Israeli partners.

For the past decade, the destruction of the centralized state of Iraq has been the new strategic goal of the British and the Americans.

What is going on presently has long been planned. The mainstream media will not tell you that the US is supporting both sides in the Iraqi conflict. Washington is overtly supporting the Iraqi Shiite government, while covertly training, arming and funding the Sunni Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Until political leaders start pandering to the universal and pluralistic wishes of the people and their goodwill and not the mighty corporations, radicalisation of the young will continue. Inequality is a major driver of extremism and politicians and big business ignite this fuse with the secret deals that they create – the TTIP (The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) is a prime example of this if it goes through with their secret negotiation meetings and secret courts once in place. The people of the EU and the USA will have no say and where the TTIP courts will overrule sovereign laws of both EU nations and the USA.

You could not make it up if you tried but where this will become to be fact and where you can definitely say goodbye to the NHS if the TTIP so-called trade agreement goes through. Note how Cameron could not get his way and where he and all other political leaders (including Labour) have signed up to the TTIP.