This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial "A century of suffering" carried by the newspaper recently. The newspaper has argued, inter alia, that "The entity [ISIS] has demolished the so-called sanctity of another highly heinous agreement also inked during World War I - the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 or a map that has spawned a century of resentment and hatred in the Middle East".
There is no doubt about the fact that the West itself is responsible for the birth of terrorist outfits such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. The Balfour Declaration gave birth to a tragedy that has turned the entire Middle East into an extremely violence-hit region. How ironic it is that the British government is celebrating the centenary of the Balfour Declaration in total disregard of what Israel has been doing in the occupied West Bank. Both Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement have caused an immense harm on the region. Britain, therefore, owes an apology to all those who live in the Middle East and beyond.