Iraq

Current protests in Iraq may be due to an ailing economy. The 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement defined the spheres of control and influence in Iraq and beyond, instigating the eventual partition of the middle east; and according to legislation by Britain and France with assent from the Russian empire and Italy.
At the end of world war I, Britain selected administrators in Iraq from the Sunni Arab elite which, according to some beliefs, was the beginning of a fateful alliance.
Relations are ambiguous since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, that is, diplomatic relations have not been severed on an elite level inspite of the slaughter on the ground.
Current protests in Iraq began in early October. An Iraqi woman spoke to Western contingents on film saying, “You steal from us, we will fight, men and women together.”