Iraq was split up with Britain, the colonial suppressor of Iraq, controlling half of the Iraq, then France and the United States controlled a quarter each. With all agreements, there are always disagreements and negotiations. In these negotiations, European countries saw the United States behavior as in consistent and self-centered and the United States saw European behavior as shortsighted and greedy. This slowed talks considerably. But the two sides found ways to peacefully negotiate and bridge their differences. Britain kept the majority control due to a strategy which they had been trying to implement for many years. Britain wanted to control Iraq to pad it's ever so precious gem: India. While controlling Iraq and Iran, Britain now had seemed to cut off the western world from invading India as easily as it could in the pre-World War I era. The United States moved into Iraq after it learned that more things could be found in Iraq than just oil. The United States found that American business men admired and accommodated themselves to the nationalism found in Iraq. Also the United States wanted to use Iraq as a missionary field to help Iraqi's find the faith. Along with the business men and missionaries, the United States sent archaeologists into Iraq to try and find many key things like oil. .
Since the United States never declared war upon the Ottoman Empire, it had not played a direct role in the negotiations, but would not accept the San Remo division. Consequently, the Foreign Office and the State Department came to and agreement upon the notorious Red Line Agreement. This gave a 23.75 percent share in holdings of the Iraq Petroleum Company to American companies. Even though this agreement was not fair, the United States would chip away towards equality. Many developments which took place in places such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia happened due to long skirmishes between the British and American governments.
