Nadene Goldfoot
Mesopotamia was ruled first by the Assyrians (Semites) from 20th century BCE on , who were later taken over by the Babylonians who inherited it from Nebuchadnezzar II in 604-561 BCE. The land was conquered by the Arabs from Arabia in 637 after Mohammad died in 632. His followers planned to fulfill his dreams even after he had died.
The Jews of the land favored and even assisted the Arab advance in the hope that it would afford them deliverance from the Sassanid persecution.
What actually took place was that shortly after the Arab occupation, Jews were expelled from Arabia and had to settle in Kufa. Kūfah, also spelled Kufa, medieval city of Iraq that was a centre of Arab culture and learning from the 8th to the 10th century. It was founded in 638 ce as a garrison town by
The Ottoman Empire of the Turks of Turkey lasted a span of 400 years. Palestine became a part by 1517 and lasted until the end of WWI in 1917.
Oil became the important source of profit for Iraq and those who ruled over it. Even in ancient days it was known to exist in Iraq and western Iran. In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was told of the presence of oil in commercial quantities. Foreign prospectors from 1904 to 1912 were very interested in acquiring concessions. The Germans were involved through the Deutsche Bank; and British had an interest through D'Arcy's Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The Royal Dutch shell Company had a subsidiary, the Anglo-Saxon Oil Company and the Americans began negotiating through the Chester group. WWI (July 28, 1914-November 11, 1918) prevented these countries from receiving firm concessions. After the war each company claimed that they had one, so anxious were they to get oil.
Politicians were evidently not aware of the business deals previously about oil, so they claimed. Sykes and Picot were innocent. The Sykes -Picot Treaty was a series of secret agreements between Britain, France and Russia with a later addition of Italy done between 1914 and 1916. They claimed that the concession to the Turkish Petroleum Company had been given to the Germans by the Ottomans in 1912 was valid, but this made life awkward to hold a concession for oil in a territory that was assigned to France after the war. The Sykes Picot Agreement allocated to the UK control of what is today southern Israel and Palestine, Jordan and southern Iraq, and an additional small area that included the ports of Haifa and Acre to allow access to the Mediterranean. France was to control southeastern Turkey, the Kurdistan Region, Syria and Lebanon.
The Jews-Zionist leaders only discovered the terms early in 1917 and protested against the condominium which they believed would expose the Jews to dangers of a constant power conflict, and against the radical dismemberment of the country. This "treaty" was partly responsible for the form of the post-war frontiers of Palestine.
France relinquished the province of Mosul to Britain in return for 25% of the shares in Turkish Petroleum originally to go to Germany. A new map was created and the whole plan incorporated as part of the San Remo Agreement of April 24, 1920. To the victor go the spoils, as they say. WWI was the bloodiest of wars. Mosul became important again in the war, Desert Storm. ISIL=The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Da'ish or Daesh, is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam.
The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. It was so bloody, it was thought never to be repeated. Germany was the main country attacking others in WWI and then soon in WWII by 1939, raising thoughts of it by 1933. It was really the Ottoman Empire's fault for tagging onto Germany in WWI. Turkey lost all their power; all their control. This also reflected on religions; Muslims lost, Christian world won. Only by now, in 2023, with the Abrahamic Accords with Israel, has some Muslim countries come to terms with the Western world.
Emir Feisal (20 May 1885 – 8 September 1933) was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death. He was the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Emir and Sharif of Mecca, who was proclaimed as King of the Arabs in June 1916. He was a 38th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad, as he belonged to the Hashemite family.
It was Emir Feisal, a man originally for the state of Israel to be born again, who had to change his mind towards Jews after dealing with Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Sherif of Jerusalem, who ironically was chosen by a Jewish Britisher to be seen as such a leader. He didn't know the people, in that Husseini was terrible; leader of attacks against Jewish communities. Feisal became king of Iraq from 1921 and king of Syria. His whole name was Hussein Ibn Feisal (1885-1933). He was the eldest son of Hussein, sherif of Mecca. It was he who led the Arab "rising" against Turkey (1916-1918).
Desert Storm War in Iraq
USA fought in Desert Storm in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. In March 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq vowing to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. When WMD intelligence proved illusory and a violent insurgency arose, the war lost public support. Saddam was captured, tried, and hanged and democratic elections were held. In the years since, there have been over 4,700 U.S. and allied troop deaths, and more than one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians have been killed. Meanwhile, questions linger over Iraq’s fractious political situation.
Over the past two decades Iraq has been affected by several waves of intense conflict and violence. The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a multinational coalition led by the United States and United Kingdom toppled the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein. It also ushered in years of chaos and civil war, as a variety of armed groups vied for power and territory and targeted coalition forces and the fledgling post-Ba’athist Iraqi Army. A period of relative calm in the early 2010s was broken by the rise of the extremist Islamic State group, which occupied large parts of the country from 2014 until it was largely defeated by Iraqi forces with the support of a US-led international coalition in 2017.
Today Iraq is enjoying its most stable period since 2003. Armed violence persists in different forms, but it is sporadic, fragmented and localized. However, the country remains fragile and divided, and its people face an array of deepening challenges that the state is struggling to address. This Topical Backgrounder aims to provide a snapshot of the situation in Iraq 20 years since the invasion.
A fragile, oil-dependent economy
Crude oil exports accounted for an estimated 95 per cent of federal revenues in 2020. Successive governments have done little to wean Iraq off this heavy dependency on oil rents and diversify the economy. This has led to a bloated public sector characterized by patronage and to a shortage of jobs for new graduates—especially those without the necessary connections and networks.
Resource;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement#:~:text=The%20agreement%20allocated%20to%20the,Kurdistan%20Region%2C%20Syria%20and%20Lebanon.
https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2023/iraq-2023-challenges-and-prospects-peace-and-human-security
https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/isil.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/7/16/battle-for-mosul-who-controls-what
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