t, with a twist: Russia was promised Istanbul and the straits if the case of a "successful conclusion to the war" (Yapp 275). This "promise" must be seen in light of Britain and France's expectation that the war would be concluded diplomatically. Yet another irony is how Britain was able to get what she wanted in these "agreements" while still winning the war.
The next problem for Britain was retaining and strengthening the empire. In the Middle East, this required a connection to India, which Sir Mark Sykes decided would best be Iraq. However, to better connect Iraq to England he wanted a Mediterranean port, settling on Haifa. That this contended with French claims was fine with Britain because British leaders did not really want France to be that strong in the Middle East anyway. The result was each country got what she really wanted, and Palestine was left to an international administration. Russia could be expected to be upset about France and England gaining so much, so when they complained they received more as well, and the effective divis
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