MIDDLE EAST
OVERVIEW
The Middle East comprises the countries of West Asia, as well as historically Muslim countries in North Africa and Europe. Except for Israel, all Middle Eastern countries are predominantly Muslim, and the populations are predominantly Arab except for in Israel, Iran, and Turkey. The largest ethnic minority in the Middle East are the Kurdish people, who live in a region called Kurdistan which spans across several countries.
The most powerful countries in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia – with its vast land, resources, and oil-based wealth; Israel, the region’s only nuclear power, with its superior military, strong economy, and special ties to the US; and the UAE (United Arab Emirates), a wealthy financial hub.
Small oil-rich countries Qatar and Kuwait are among the richest in the world, while war-torn Syria and Yemen are the poorest, and are facing humanitarian crises.
In recent years Israel is the only Middle Eastern country ranked as “free” in the Freedom House report on political rights and civil liberties, and is the only country considered to have a true democracy. The rest of the region is largely controlled by authoritarian regimes – monarchies or sham democracies – with few free elections and no freedom of the press.
Oil is the cornerstone of the economy for many Middle Eastern countries; although some, like Lebanon, are oil-dry. Israel’s economy is centered around technology and manufacturing.
Iran and Saudi Arabia rival for dominance in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia being the center of Sunni Islam and Iran the Shia Islam.
The Middle East is the place of origin for Judaism (c. 3000 BCE), Christianity (c. 1 CE), and Islam (c. 600 CE).
ISLAM
All Middle Eastern countries are Muslim except for the Jewish state Israel.
A dispute over succession led to the split between the two major factions of Islam: Sunni and Shia. There are only four Shia Muslim majority countries in the world — Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan, with all other forty Muslim countries being Sunni majority.
Sharia law, or Islamic law, is religious law based on the Quran and the Sunnah, writings about Muhammad’s traditions and practices. Saudi Arabia is governed under classical sharia law, and most other Muslim-majority countries incorporate sharia into their legal framework.
OIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Oil has only been a coveted commodity since the 19th century, when it was used for lamps, and was discovered in the Middle East in the early 20th century as the automobile industry was taking off. The region has the world’s largest oil reserves, especially Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait, and the UAE.
While US dependence on oil from the Middle East was a powerful influence on policy and diplomacy throughout the 20th century, the US now gets more oil from Canada and Mexico than it does from the Persian Gulf.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
The center of UN activity in the Middle East is Beirut, Lebanon.
The Arab League aims to develop the regional economy, settle disputes, and coordinate political aims among the member states, and is based in Cairo, Egypt.
The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) is a political and economic alliance between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, and is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Aramco is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, and is owned by the government of Saudi Arabia.
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is an intergovermental organization which coordinates oil production policies between its members, affecting pricing by monitoring supply and demand. Members include the Middle Eastern oil producing countries, as well as Venezuela (world’s largest oil producer) Ecuador, and several African countries.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RECENT HISTORY
BEFORE WORLD WAR I
By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire, centered in today’s Turkey, included much of the Middle East, apart from the kingdom of Persia (now Iran) and Arabia. Egypt and parts of the Arabian peninsula were under British control.
It was in the 19th century that the Zionist movement began to gather momentum as a reaction to anti-semitism in Europe. The movement aimed to create a state for the Jewish people in their ancient homeland, the region then called Palestine.
WORLD WAR I
The Ottoman Empire was overstretched and failing at the outset of World War I, and allied with the Central Powers.
Anticipating that the empire would be defeated, before the end of the war the European Allied powers conspired to divide up the land of the Middle East amongst themselves in the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, which would give Middle Eastern territories to Great Britain, France, and Russia. (These powers wanted control of Middle Eastern territories for strategic reasons: for instance, Great Britain wanted to protect its access to India, and Russia wanted a warm-water port.) Great Britain also brokered conflicting agreements with the Arab people and the Jewish people, promising to recognize Arab independence after the war in a region understood to include Palestine, in exchange for support overthrowing the empire; while simultaneously announcing support for the Zionist movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine with the Balfour Declaration.
INTERWAR
Following World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, European powers proceeded to divide up the land of the Middle East, often creating unsuitable boundaries which would later come to cause conflict. Great Britain was granted the British Mandate for Palestine (now Israel and Palestine), Transjordan (now Jordan), and Mesopotamia (now Iraq). France was granted control of Syria and Lebanon. Iran and Arabia remained independent.
CHANGES AND REFORMS
In the 1920s, Egypt gained independence from the UK, and the Saud family consolidated Arabia into the nation of Saudi Arabia. Turkey became a secular republic under Western-leaning reformer Kemal Ataturk, and Iran was modernized under Western-leaning Reza Shah.
During this time, large numbers of European Jews were immigrating to what is now Israel, fleeing religious persecution. The resulting dispossession of the Palestinians — along with general dissatisfaction with British rule — led to the Great Palestinian Revolt in the 1930s.
Oil was discovered in the 1930s in Saudi Arabia.
WORLD WAR II
The Middle Eastern theatre of war involved clashes between British forces and Italian and German forces.
POSTWAR
The second half of the 20th century (and into the present) has been defined largely by two issues: the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the rise of oil.
CREATION OF ISRAEL AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
Much of the turmoil in the 20th century in the Middle East stems from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Although the site of Israel was the ancient home of the Jewish people, and was in the Jewish faith a land promised to their people, in the 20th century the region was inhabited by Palestinian Arabs, and the dispossession of the these people caused an uproar in the Arab world. Immediately after the creation of Israel, neighboring Arab countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq) launched an attack in the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Israel resisted this attack, won the war and made considerable additional territory gains.
The same fundamental conflict would be the cause of numerous conflicts to follow: the Six Day War (1967), the Yom Kippur War (1973), Israel’s invasion of Lebanon (1982), the Palestinian intifadas (uprisings) of (1987 and 2000), as well as the current Israel-Hamas war following the attack on Israelis in Gaza on October 7, 2023. In the 1980s, the leader of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by Islamists terrorists for brokering peace with Israel; and in the 1990s the leader of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist for trying to make peace with Lebanon.
There are many countries today which do not recognize the state of Israel, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. Meanwhile, the state of Palestine (established 1988) is not recognized by countries including the United States, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada.
SUEZ CRISIS
Egypt’s Suez Canal was built in the 1800s and controlled by France and the UK. When in 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser decided to nationalize the canal, Israel, France, and the UK invaded to regain control and depose Nasser. However, to their surprise, the US condemned the invasion, the invasion failed, and the canal remained in Egyptian control. The Suez Crisis is often described as a turning point in 20th century geopolitics for several reasons: it marked a change in US-UK relations, signaled the decline of the British Empire and of European Imperial attitudes generally, and it allowed the Soviet Union, which assisted Egypt, to expand its influence in the Middle East. The Soviet Union went on to assist Egypt with building the Aswan Dam, a project which the US declined to support.
COUP IN IRAN
In the 1950s, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq nationalized Iranian oil production, cutting off Britain’s long control of Iran’s oil through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
The UK, aided by the CIA, successfully engineered a coup to unseat Mossadeq and reinstate the Western-leaning Mohammed Reza Shah, whose policies would benefit foreign business interests.
This interference bred anti-Western sentiment in the country which persists today.
SIX DAY WAR
In the highly significant third Arab- Israeli conflict, the 1967 Six Day War, Israel defeated its attackers (Egypt, Jordan, Syria) so soundly that it seized Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, Gaza strip, and the West Bank. After seizing these territories, the Israeli government urged Israelis to create settler communities in those regions, in violation of international law.
YOM KIPPUR WAR, CAMP DAVID, AND OIL CRISIS
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Egypt again attacked Israel, initiating the attack on the holy day. Israel was again victorious.
Following this war, the two nations brokered a peace deal at the Camp David Accords, overseen by US President Jimmy Carter in which Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and Egypt acknowledged Israel’s right to statehood— the first country in the Arab world to do so.
The Yom Kippur War was blamed for the global oil crisis of 1973— Arab members of OPEC placed an oil embargo on the US and other countries that supported Israel in the war. It is thought that this was an excuse for an embargo which OPEC wanted to implement for economic reasons. The US economy, dependent on foreign oil, was rocked by the shortage.
IRAN REVOLUTION
The 1979 Iran Revolution began with protests and dissatisfaction with the corruption of the Western-leaning Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and the government’s violent crackdowns on protesters. Ultimately the Shah was forced into exile, and the spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini came into power, radically transforming the government into an Islamic Republic under the leadership of a Supreme Leader.
IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS
In 1979, protesters took over the US embassy in Tehran, Iran and took hostages. The hostages were held for over a year as various US attempts to rescue them failed until their eventual rescue in 1981.
As a result of this incident, Iran and the US severed diplomatic relations and still have no formal diplomatic relationship today.
IRAN-IRAQ WAR
Following the Iranian Revolution, Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in order to prevent Iran’s revolutionary leader Khomeini from spreading the Shia revolution further afield and threaten the power of his Sunni-dominated Ba’ath party. The hugely damaging war lasted eight years and ended in a stalemate. The US supported Iraq in the war to prevent an Iranian victory.
OSLO ACCORDS
In the 1980s, Israel and Palestine recognized each other’s right to exist peacefully in the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Authority was established to govern Palestinian territories on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
GULF WAR
Iraq, unable to pay back its wealthy neighbor Kuwait for war debts from the 1980 Iran – Iraq War, invaded Kuwait in 1990 to try to seize its rich oil fields.
The US intervened and led a coalition with the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt which quickly drove the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait (although they infamously burned the oil fields as they retreated, causing an environmental catastrophe.)
9/11, WAR ON TERROR
After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon, which was engineered by Al-Quaeda head Osama bin Laden, US President George W. Bush declared a War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan, thought to be a haven for terrorists. The US quickly overthrew the Taliban in the initial attack, but the war dragged on for years, and the Taliban increasingly regained territory. When the US finally withdrew in 2021, the Taliban seized control of the country. Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011 after a decade-long search.
WAR IN IRAQ
The US waged war on Iraq in 2003 as part of the War on Terror. As Iraq had routinely evaded UN weapons inspections in the years following the Gulf War, the US cited the threat of hidden weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) — which could be supplied to terrorists — as reason to invade and depose Saddam Hussein. WMDs were never found, and although Saddam was quickly captured (and later executed), the attempt to reconstruct and stabilize the region afterwards was long and fraught with insurgent violence. The US officially withdrew in 2011, but troops were redeployed in 2014 when the resulting insurgency caused a civil war.
ARAB SPRING AND CONSEQUENCES
The Arab Spring— widespread pro-democracy protests against corrupt governments and social injustice— began in Tunisia in 2010 and spread to many other countries in the Arab world.
By 2011, the protests in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen, had successfully deposed dictators who had been in power for decades. However, the aftermath of the transition of power in all of these places — except Tunisia, which has overall successfully reformed — has led to catastrophic conflict. And in Syria, where ruling dictator Bashar al-Assad was not deposed, the Assad regime’s crackdown on protests escalated into a civil war, detailed below, which is still ongoing today.
As a result of this, except in the case of Tunisia, the Arab Spring is generally viewed as a failure, as in many places it has led to worse circumstances than before.
A second wave of protests across the Arab world took place in 2019-2020, suggesting that the Arab Spring movement is still ongoing.
SYRIAN CIVIL WAR
Arab Spring uprisings in Syria in 2011 escalated to the brutal ongoing civil war which has involved war crimes on all sides, including the use of chemical weapons on civilians, and resulted in the Syrian refugee crisis which persists today, with millions of Syrians seeking asylum in countries in the Middle East and Europe. The war is a complicated, multi-sided conflict. The US entered the war in order to fight terrorist group ISIS, and a US-led coalition has participated in the war on the side of the rebel groups. Iran, Russia, and Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah have aided the Syrian government.
Millions have been displaced by the war, causing a refugee crisis in nearby Middle Eastern and European countries, particularly Turkey.
YEMEN CONFLICT
Yemen is experiencing a humanitarian disaster, with over 20 million people in need of aid and many at risk of starvation and disease.
After the longtime dictator of Yemen was deposed in the Arab Spring movement, a new Saudi-backed leader was placed in power. Political unrest followed, and a complicated power struggle between many factions, including the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, and a Saudi-led coaltion, with civilians caught in the crossfire.
RISE AND FALL OF ISIS
Radical militant terrorist ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) arose in Iraq after the US invasion and shared roots with Al Qaeda. ISIS perpetrated violence against Shia muslims and Westerners, and formed an army which took over large territories in Iraq and Syria. A global coalition fought successfully to drive out ISIS, and by 2017 had liberated most territories from the group’s control.
PERSIAN GULF CRISIS
In recent years there has been a crisis of tensions between US and Iran in the Persian Gulf.
In January 2020 Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed by US forces in a targeted attack, allegedly to prevent attacks on US personnel.
WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN
In 2021, US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, and the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban quickly seized control of the country.
REGION BY REGION
The definition of the Middle East as a region is somewhat fluid, but the nineteen countries profiled here are conventionally included. Note that a broader definition of the Middle East can include all of the countries of the Magrheb region (Northern Africa)— and occasionally the South Asian countries Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Middle East spans the African, Asian, and European continents.
AFRICA
EGYPT
LIBYA
SUDAN
Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, with a population of over 100 million, and has a large military.
Libya was ruled over by the Italians, French, and British in the 20th century before gaining independence in the 1950s. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi took power in the 1960s and ruled as dictator for four decades before being ousted in 2011. This has left a power vacuum and instability.
Sudan had once been Africa’s largest country, before splitting into Sudan (predominantly Arab and Muslim) and South Sudan (predominantly Christian) in 2011. For decades before the split, a civil war plagued the country, with many human rights violations. In 2003, genocide and ethnic cleansing were perpetrated against non-Arab groups in the Darfur region by an Arab militia called the Janjaweed.
The intercommunal violence and displacement has continued, and in recent years both Sudan and South Sudan have ranked among the world’s most fragile states and experienced dire humanitarian crises.
WEST ASIA
Bounded on the west by the Mediterrean, the fertile crescent runs through these countries, allowing agriculture in an otherwise desert region, and contrasting it with the barren but oil-rich Arabian peninsula.
LEBANON
ISRAEL
PALESTINE
JORDAN
SYRIA
Jordan is one of the only Arab countries which has made peace with Israel.
Syria is still embroiled in the civil war which began in 2011 and is in humanitarian crisis.
A diverse country which gained independence from France in the 1940s, Lebanon experienced civil war between its various religious factions (Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, and Christians) from 1975-1990. In the last decade, tensions have increased between Hezbollah and Sunni groups.
Having suffered attacks by its neighbors since its creation in 1948, Israel today possesses a strong military, and it is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. It is a world leader in science and innovation and agricultural technology.
Israel is currently at war with Hamas (an Islamist political faction of the Palestinian territories) following a brutal attack on Israelis in Gaza on October 7, 2023. More than tens thousand Palestinians have been killed in the war, including many civilians.
IRAN AND IRAQ
IRAN
IRAQ
Denounced by President George W. Bush in 2002 as being part of the “Axis of Evil” (along with Iraq and North Korea), Iran has long been in tense relations with the US, which has escalated to crisis level since 2019.
Since 2002, tensions have escalated in the form of changing nuclear deals, military strikes, and the US instating harsh economic sanctions which have strained Iran’s economy.
In 2019-2020, tensions reached crisis level, and the nations were close to the brink of war in January 2020 after the US assassinated General Soleimani in a drone strike and Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile strike on a US-occupied military base in Iraq.
ARABIAN PENINSULA
GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL
These Persian gulf countries belong to this intergovernmental political and economic council (now formally called the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf).
SAUDIA ARABIA
YEMEN
OMAN
Saudi Arabia (named for the Saud family, in power since the 1900s) is the largest Arab country in the Middle East, the leader of the international oil industry, one of the world’s greatest oil producers, and is a member of the G20. It shares a strong economic relationship with the US.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with Islamic law (Sharia) as the primary source of legislation. It is considered one of the worst countries for gender equality: women cannot travel without male consent and were only recently granted the right to vote (2011) and to drive (2018.)
Wahabism – a fundamentalist form of Islam – is Saudi Arabia’s dominant religion.
CRISIS IN YEMEN
Yemen has been experiencing a humanitarian crisis, with over 20 million people in need of aid.
The poorest country in the region, with few natural resources unlike its oil-rich neighbors, Yemen has been torn by civil war since 2014 when Iran-linked Shia Muslim Houthi insurgents took over the capital, amidst the unrest following the Arab Spring movement. The US is supporting the Saudi-led coalition fighting the insurgents.
Millions of civilians have suffered from displacement, famine, and destruction of infrastructure.
THE GULF
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
KUWAIT
BAHRAINE
QATAR
Financial hub and one of the richest countries in the world, the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) is generally the most liberal and Westernized of the Arab countries. Capital city Abu Dhabi and Dubai are among the richest cities in the world.
Small, insular, oil-rich Kuwait is one of the richest countries per capita.
Oil-rich Qatar is the richest country in the world by GNI (Gross National Income: the total amount of money earned by a nation’s people and businesses). The media company Al-Jazeera is based in its capital Doha.
EUROPEAN
TURKEY
CYPRUS
Turkey, former center of the Ottoman Empire, sits in a strategic location spanning both Europe and Asia. It is considered both a European country (though it has not succeeded in its attempts to become a member of the European Union) and a Middle Eastern country. The population is largely Muslim.
Turkey has one of the world’s larger economies (similar in size to Saudi Arabia’s) and is a member of the G20. It has a strong military, and is a member of NATO.
Turkey’s ongoing conflict with the Kurds (one of the largest ethnic minority groups in the Middle East) led to their involvement in the Syrian War.
US relations with Turkey are strained. Meanwhile, Russia— although historically an opponent— has recently formed a closer relationship with Turkey.
Cyprus is an important financial hub for Russia and Eastern Europe. Turkey invaded the island in 1974 and still occupies the northern region.
