The results of Churchill's Cairo meeting left Ibn Saud with hostile rulers to the West and North. Husain bin Ali, the Shareef of Makkah, now designated King of the Hijaz, controlled much of the Red Sea coast; to the north, Iraq was ruled by the Shareef's eldest son, Faisal; and to the north-west lay Transjordan, with Husain's second son, Abdullah, as King.

Sir Percy Cox, recently appointed the British High Commissioner in Iraq, was acutely conscious that Churchill's arrangements could not but alarm and alienate Ibn Saud.

Sir Percy's concerns were aggravated by the vagueness of the borders which divided Ibn Saud's territory from the two new Kingdoms. The border areas were Nomad land and already the Ikhwan were terrorizing the shepherds in the region and provoking counter-attacks by the Iraqi forces.

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