What was officially initiated by Sherif Hussein bin Ali at Mecca on 10 June 1916, and was part of the Siege of Medina that occurred during World War I?
Siege of Medina Medina, an Islamic holy city in Arabia, underwent a long siege during World War I. Medina was at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. In the war, the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers. Sharif Hussain of Mecca revolted against the caliph and the Ottoman Empire which, under the leadership of the nationalistic Young Turks, had ignored the wishes of the Caliph and sided with the Central Powers. Hussain instead sided with the British Empire. T. E. Lawrence was instrumental in this revolt. Hussain occupied Mecca and besieged Medina. It was one of the longest sieges in history that lasted till even after the end of war. Fahreddin Pasha was the defender of Medina. Some celebrated him as ""the Lion of the Desert"" despite the suffering of those who remained in Medina. The siege lasted two years and seven months.
Cairo Conference (1921) The 1921 Cairo Conference, described in the official minutes as Middle East Conference held in Cairo and Jerusalem, March 12 to 30, 1921, was a series of meetings by British officials for examining and discussing Middle Eastern problems, and to frame a common policy. Particular concerns of the conference related to resolving the conflicting policies defined in the McMahon letters (1915), the Sykes-Picot agreement (1916) and the Balfour Declaration (1917). Winston Churchill, the newly appointed Colonial Secretary, called all the British Military Leaders and civil administrators in the Middle East to a conference at the Semiramis hotel in Cairo to discuss these issues. It was an experimental conference organized by the Colonial Office, with the purpose to solve problems more efficiently, with improved communications, without protracted correspondence.