middle east:https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/armistice-europe-launched-century-war-middle-east-202789177
“…Britain’s abandonment of its commitment to Ottoman territorial integrity was frankly explained by Lawrence in an intelligence memo in January 1916. e stated that the Arab revolt was “beneficial to us because it marches with our immediate aims, the break up of the Islamic ‘bloc’ and the defeat and disruption of the Ottoman Empire … The Arabs are even less stable than the Turks. If properly handled they would remain in a state of political mosaic, a tissue of small jealous principalities incapable of cohesion.”
After the war, Lawrence wrote another report, this time for the British Cabinet, entitled “Reconstruction of Arabia,” in which he noted that Sharif Hussein “was chosen because of the rift he would create in Islam”. Lawrence also called for “the creation of a ring of client states, themselves insisting on our patronage, to turn the present and future flank of any foreign power with designs on the three rivers [Iraq]”….