The Ghost of Sykes-Picot Still Haunts the Middle East a Century On

On today's special episode of Loud & Clear, host Brian Becker is joined by journalist and political analyst Hafsa Kara-Mustapha and author Richard Becker to discuss the 100th anniversary of the signing of the secret Sykes-Picot agreement that carved up huge parts of the Middle East between France and Britain.

A century later the colonial agreement’s ramifications are still felt across the region. The current wars in Iraq, in Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, the divisions in Lebanon, not to mention Iran’s long and tortured path toward independence — cannot be separated from the very concrete, specific and devastating policies and decisions by western imperialist powers one hundred years ago. And it is these these same powers that have engaged in a series of endless wars, invasions, bombings and occupations of Middle Eastern countries in the last two decades.