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Sykes-Pikot hidden agreement between the colonial powers of France and United Kingdom, with the assent of Imperial Russia carved out the Levant and the Arab Syrian Republic is a byproduct of that Accord. They divided the Levant into five countries namely Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel (seed was sowed for the creation of Jewish state).If I recall correctly, post WW2 there were calls from various Arab leaders/nationalists to have a giant Arab state that would have comprised Saudi, the Gulf states, Jordan, Iraq and Syria. Apart from being very impractical to implement, this move was resisted by the outside powers. A huge part of the problem is due to artificial borders that were created by France and Britain - to safeguard their national interests - which resulted in people from the same sects or tribes being displaced and geographically seperated.
Modern day Lebanon for instance was part of Syria until it was carved out into a separate state by the French, which is the main reason why we have Alawites in Lebanon. Hatay was part of Syria until it was annexed by Turkey. We also have examples of artifial borders in areas where there are Sunni majorities, like in Jordan, which is where the hashemite settled after being kicked out of Hejaz, where they were originally from. King Faisal of Iraq who was shot with his family after being desposed in a left wing coup, was King Hussin's [of Jordan's] cousin.
The unnatural division of the people of Muslim Faith to meet out imperial ambitions and to totally crush the future of any powerful Muslim state they partitioned the receding Ottoman Empire that ultimately culminated in the abolition of Islamic Caliphate.
The biggest country in the Levant, Syria is going through a turmoil after Arab revolution- hurricane entered in its borders. After nearly two years of turmoil the Bathist regime of president Basher Al- Assad is still able to hold the power structure of the country with the help of strategic partner Iran and proxy Hezbollah and “off course” with the impeccable backing of resurgent Russians and rising Chinese.
In my view the peace will only to return in the region of Middle East & North Africa with the integration of existing sovereign states in few big entities but that is very difficult to achieve as no one from US to Russia would like that development.