Middle East and the long shadow of sykes-picot and red line agreements

Why didn’t the Israelis go for the less controversial option of sending their assassination squads (Kidon, in Mossad operational parlance) as they have done on several occasions in the past, to take out the Hamas militants in their recent attack in Qatar? Why did they have to use the risky and dramatic option of air strikes on a country that is not only considered as moderate and very close ally of the United States of America, Israel’s number one benefactor in the world?

Did America give Israel the approval and support to strike Qatar where one of its largest Air force Bases, the Al Uddaid, is stationed knowing full well the consequences that will follow?

In the world of diplomacy and intelligence, certain actions are taken not merely to address specific issues and challenges as they come, but also to project a capability that sends signals to foes and friends alike that when necessary, friendship could be set aside to protect vital interests.

As far as we know, Israel’s favoured methods in settling scores with its Palestinian and non-Palestinian enemies is the use of assassination squads who will quietly trace the exact location of the identified enemy or enemies and ruthlessly liquidate them, quickly exfiltrating the scene of action before the authorities got any wiser.

But in the recent attack on Qatar which the Israelis justified on the altar of the ongoing war on Hamas and its ‘’infrastructure of terror’’, there are wider strategic messages which the Israelis along with their American counterparts intended to convey both to their Middle Eastern allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Gulf states and foes like Iran, China and Russia.

To unravel the hidden issues in the recent Israeli attack on Qatar we need to know the following facts; That the current order in the Middle East was a creation of the Western countries courtesy of the arbitrary action of the secret Sykes-Picot (Mark Sykes for Britain and Francois Georges-Picot for France) Agreement of 1916 in which Britain and France having lured the Arabs with promises and assistance to overthrow their Ottoman overlords turned round to divide the Middle East between themselves. As the Ottomans who allied with the Germans in the first world war faced imminent defeat, under the terms of the agreement Britain took the province of Iraq and detached the Arabian Gulf from it leading to creation of Kuwait. France took over Syria and created Lebanon out of it giving the Maronite Christian Lebanese political advantage over the Sunni, Shiite and Druze groups in the country.

In the Arabian Peninsula with its numerous clans ruled by clan heads, the British encouraged and assisted the Al Saud clan to forcibly unite the two main provinces, Hejaz and Nejd naming the new country Saudi Arabia after the clan name in 1932. To compensate the clan of the Bani Hashem, the clan from which Prophet Muhammad hailed, and who had for centuries been honoured as custodians of the two Islamic holy mosques located in the cities of Makkah and Madina, the British created the Kingdom of Jordan on the banks of the River Jordan placing the leader of the Hashemite clan Abdallah as King whose subjects are till this day overwhelmingly Palestinian. To safeguard his throne against any possible revolt by his Palestinian subjects, they formed and equipped the Jordanian Legion which functions in this manner to this day.

On Palestine which was administered by the British under mandate of the League of Nations there was a lot of dithering on what to do with the territory. In their public memos, the British had indicated to the world that their intention was to create two states, one for the Jews and another for the Palestinians under their mandate (reference the Balfour declaration of 1917 on the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine). But in reality, because there were not enough Jews at the time to form a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian one (who had more numbers and land for such an eventuality) the British tactically delayed the creation of both the Israeli and Palestinian states.

The secret idea of a Jewish state in Middle East by the British was that of enforcer of western interests in the region to safeguard the vast oil deposits and keep the Arab states whom they did not trust, firmly in the western sphere. The British and French reckoned that if the Arabs could collude with them to throw out their fellow Muslim overlords (the Ottoman Turks) they (the Arabs) will not hesitate to do the same thing if the opportunity presents itself.

So, in 1948 when the state of Israel was eventually proclaimed, the Middle East order as designed by the west had come to fruition comprising the arbitrarily partitioned patchwork of Arab states sitting on vast oil wealth which the west needed, and a strong well-armed, well supported state of Israel detailed to keep the Middle East firmly in the western sphere.

This order was reinforced with the ‘’Red Line Agreement of 1928’’ which was an agreement crafted by Calouste Gulbenkian a petroleum Geologist of Armenian-Turkish origin who had mapped out the entire oil deposits of the Middle East. And it was from his findings which he indicated by a red line on a map of the Middle East that the Anglo-French and American oil companies divided up the oil deposits between themselves.

This order was kept right up to 1956 when during the Suez war the Americans forced the British and French to hand over control of the entire Middle East region to them relegating the British and French to subordinate statuses in the process.

To effectively play its enforcement role on behalf of the west in the Middle East, Israel has over the years with the active encouragement and support of the western countries developed capacities that has enabled it to infiltrate the highest levels of government and societies in the Arab states. Over the years Israel has developed the technical edge to punish any Arab state that had attempted or shows any intention of bucking the Middle East order designed by the West. And America, Britain and France have continued to reap bountifully from this. Not only does this ensure cheap flow of oil to Western countries on their terms, the whole concept of petrodollars in which global oil sales are traded in US Dollars to the global economic and political advantage of America is based principally on the control of the Middle East order by especially the United States of America.

In recent years however, this order appears to be coming under serious challenge from China and Russia, the emerging global powers. This has alarmed America and its western allies and their resolve is that the gradual inching towards China and Russia by even moderate Arab states in the Middle East dictated by emerging global geo-political shifts must be scuttled.

In this regard, apropos of the recent Israeli attack on Qatar, It may look like the Israelis are acting to protect their security interests in going after Hamas but in reality, it is likely that the Americans ordered the hit to send a clear message to the Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states thus; ‘’We know what’s going on. You guys have been trying to cut deals with China and the Russkies behind our back. We created you and we won’t let you get away with this. Take it that the Israeli strike in Qatar was a shot across the bow. Get back in line or much more of that will come to you’’.