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Iraq–Syria border

separates the territories of Iraq and Syria

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ3088782
Source-derived summary

The Iraqi–Syrian border is the border between Syria and Iraq and runs for a total length of 599 km (372 mi) across Upper Mesopotamia and the Syrian desert, from the tripoint with Jordan in the south-west to the tripoint with Turkey in the north-east.

Description

The border starts in the west at the tripoint with Jordan at 33.3747°N 38.7936°E / 33.3747; 38.7936, with the initial section being a continuation of the long straight line that forms the eastern section of the Jordan–Syria border. The boundary then shifts in the vicinity of the Euphrates river and the Al-Qa'im border crossing, proceeding northwards via a series of short straight lines, and then north-eastwards to the Tigris river. The Tigris then forms a short 3-4 mile section of the border up to the Turkish tripoint at the confluence with the Khabur river at 37.1060°N 42.3572°E / 37.1060; 42.3572.

History

At the start of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire controlled what is now Syria and Iraq. 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 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, with France organising a mandate over Syria.

In the period 1920-23 France and Britain signed a series of agreements, collectively known as the Paulet–Newcombe Agreement, which created the modern Jordan-Syria and Iraq–Syria borders, as an amendment to what had been designated the A zone in the Sykes–Picot Agreement. In 1932, it was finalised following a League of Nations commission review.

Since the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War, the border region has become unstable, exacerbated since 2011 by the ongoing Syrian Civil War.

Editorial summary

“Iraq–Syria border” enters the record as separates the territories of Iraq and Syria. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Iraq, Syria and border can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1060, 1920, 1932, 2003—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Iraq, Syria and border.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Iraq–Syria border” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Iraq, Syria and border provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3088782. Authority coordinates are 33.367, 38.794. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1060, 1920, 1932 and 2003.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Iraq–Syria border primary sources, Iraq–Syria border archive and Iraq research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Iraq–Syria border” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.