geographically, the agreement primarily focused on the provinces outside of the arabian peninsula. a line separated a zone a (under indirect french rule) from a zone b (under indirect british rule). zone a included the major inland cities of syria as well as the iraqi city of mosul, zone b stretched from iraq to the sinai borders of egypt. a blue zone along the eastern mediterranean coastline (and parts of what is today turkey) was supposed to be placed under direct french rule. the united kingdom was supposed to have direct control over the iraqi provinces of basra and baghdad (the red zone), as well as parts of what is israel today, ensuring british access to the mediterranean sea. palestine was supposed to be placed under international administration.