What Is the Middle East?

• Position: IN THE NEWS 2018 - Geographic overview

The Middle East is a region, not a continent. It's mostly in Asia, but also includes a part of Africa (Egypt) and a corner of Europe (the small European section of Turkey).

Rich in oil and predominantly Muslim, the Middle East is both strategically important and an area of great tension. To many people, the region is defined by the decades-long conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Negotiations on a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, which would result in a Palestinian state alongside Israel, remain stalled despite U.S. efforts to revive them.

In 2003, the U.S. invaded Irag and ousted its strongman leader, Saddam Hussein. That left a power vacuum that enabled the emergence of a militant group called the Islamic State of Irag and Syria (ISIS). Starting in 2014, ISIS took control of parts of northern Irag and western Syria. The U.S. has been providing air support for Irag's fight to reclaim that territory and conducting air strikes against ISIS in Syria.

Syria is in the midst of a violent civil war that grew out of the Arab Spring protests, which roiled the Middle East in 2011. Syria's civil war has killed almost 500,000 and made 5 million others flee the country.

Middle East COUNTRY AREA (SQ MI) URBAN CAPITAL POP. % POPULATION POP. RISE %/YEAR Bahrain 297 100 Manama 1,479,000 2.3 Cyprus (7) 2,276 67 Nicosia 1,193,000 1.3 Egypt (8) 384,790 43 Cairo 93,492,000 2.5 Iran 628,872 73 Tehran 80,639,000 1.2 Iraq 167,618 70 Baghdad 39,192,000 2.6 Israel (9) 8,357 91 Jerusalem 8,348,000 1.5 Jordan 34,277 84 Amman 9,690,000 2.1 Kuwait 6,880 98 Kuwait 4,137,000 1.5 Lebanon 4,036 88 Beirut 6,230,000 -1.1 Oman 119,500 75 Muscat 4,672,000 2.0 Qatar 4,481 99 Doha 2,680,000 2.3 Saudi Arabia 830,000 83 Riyadh 32,613,000 1.5 Syria 71,498 58 Damascus 18,270,000 NA Turkey (10) 303,224 74 Ankara 80,903,000 0.5 United Arab 32,280 86 Abu Dhabi Emirates 9,400,000 2.4 Yemen 203,891 35 Sanaa 28,250,000 2.3 COUNTRY LANGUAGES POLITICAL SYSTEM & HEAD OF GOVERNMENT Bahrain Arabic, English, Constitutional monarchy; Farsi, Urdu King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa Cyprus (7) Greek, Turkish, Presidential-parliamentary English democracy; President Nikos Anastasiades Egypt (8) Arabic, English, Dominant party; French President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Iran Farsi, Turkic, Presidential-parliamentary Kurdish, Luri, system under religious others...