Thank you, Tania, for your kind comments.
I am no expert on the Middle East and I am sure others could do a better job of explanation, but I shall give it a try.
When the Ottoman Empire (foolishly, in my opinion) entered the war (World War I) as allies of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria it opened up a new theater of fighting. The British, using mainly Indian troops, tried to take Iraq by coming up from the Persian Gulf but got bogged down and that area became a stalmate until late 1917.
The other area was across the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, up through Palestine and Syria---the old route that armies had fought over for milleniums.
Then, the Arabs, who had been unhappy with Turkish rule, decided to revolt, led by the Sherif of Mecca, Hussein. This Arab Revolt caputred the imagination of the world, mainly because of T.E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia.
By 1917 it became apparent that the Ottoman Empire would eventually fall, thus leaving its territories open for the grabbing. France, represented by M. Picot, and Britian, represented by Mr. Sykes, decided to divide up the spoils of war. France had always been interested in the Levant (Lebanon and Syria and the Holy Land) and Britain had a eye on the oil of Mosul and Basra as a compliement to their control of the oil of Persia. So an agreement was reached that France would get its area of interest and Britain would get its area of interest in Iraq. They would be the controlling power either by direct colonies or through client Arab kingdoms which they would control. This was the Sykes-Picot agreement.
The history of the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine is very complicated, but essentially Balfour of Britain was presuaded to back a plan for allowing Jewish immigration there in return for Jewish support of the war. So, to encourage Jewish support, and at the same time encourage Arab support for the British effort he issued the Balfour Declaration. It essentially said Britain would help establish a Jewish area in Palestine but would also not "displace" Arabs in the same area. It was an impossible plan and was probably issued knowing full well he would never had to implement it.
When the war ended with Turkish defeat, the Arabs fully expected, from everything they had been led to believe, that they could establish a free, independent Arab nation, or nations, in the lands liberated from the Ottomans. The Zionist fully expected they could have a "homeland" in Palestine. Britiain and France were playing the old colonial game and looking to pick up new parts of their empire.
In the Versailles Treaty, they got just that, under the fig leaf of League of Nations mandates. Mandates would be territories that would supposedly become independent but until they were ready they would be under the control of either France of Britain. So, Lebanon was established as a French mandate, Syria was made a French mandate. When the Arabs there objected and revolted, the French put them down with the military. Palestine was made a British mandate. Sherif Hussein got his Kingdom of the Hejaz, with Mecca and Medina. His son Feisal, who hoped to be king of Syria, had to make do with a made up kingdom from the old Messopotamia provinces and called Iraq. He became King of Iraq, but only after the Brtish put down several revolts. His brother, Abdullah got another artificial kingdom called Trans-Jordan, today Jordan. It army was controlled by British officers.
Thus the west interferred in Arab politics and culture right up to World War II. Then, the Jews and Arabs in Palestine fought a bloody civil war. Britain, bankrupt, pulled out and laid the whole question in the lap of the United Nations. This body agreed on 'partition', or dividing the land equally between the Jews and the Arabs.
The Jews reluctantly accepted and proclaimed the State of Israel. The Arabs, confident that they could crush this little, weak Jewish enclave, refused to accept, and seven (I think) Arab armies invaded. The result was the totally unexpected victory of the Israeli armies and the humiliating defeat of the Arabs. They haven't recovered from that to this day.
Sherif Hussein of Mecca lost his kingdom in the early 1920s when it was invaded and conqured by King Ibn Saud, founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thus the Saudis became rulers of the holy places of Mecca and Medina. It was of course in Saudi Arabia that Wahabism was founded.
In Iran, first the British, then the Americans made sure that they got oil cheap. Both the Arabs and the Persians have had long and glorious histories but failed to advance into the Industrial Age like Europe and the United States. Their humiliation at having to be lackeys to the Europeans and Americans has been like an oozing sore every since 1919.
