Iraq–Jordan border
The Iraq–Jordan border is 179 km (111 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with Syria in the north to the tripoint with Saudi Arabia in the south. Description The border starts in the north at the Syrian tripoint and proceeds southwards via a series of six straight lines, down to the tripoint with Saudi Arabia. Iraq's Ruwayshid Air Base lies immediately adjacent to the border. History At the start of the 20th century the Ottoman Empire controlled what is now Jordan and Iraq, with the interior further south consisting of loosely organised Arab groupings, occasionally forming emirates, most prominent of which was the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa ruled by the al-Saud family. During the First World War an Arab Revolt, supported by Britain, succeeded in removing the Ottomans from most of the Middle East. As a result of the secret 1916 Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement Britain gained control of the Ottoman Vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, which it organised into the mandate of Iraq in 1920, and also the southern half of the Vilayet of Syria (roughly, modern western Jordan). This latter area was contested between Britain, the newly formed Arab Kingdom of Syria, Zionists in the