Political and Economic Map of the Middle East

Abstract

The concept of the Middle East has evolved over historical periods, and was limited to the region around the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Caspian Sea. There are many classifications of the concept of the Middle East according to its political component of countries. The concept of the Middle East is frequently repeated and has historical depth, and changes have occurred to include new concepts of the Middle East; such as the Greater Middle East in the American concept. The United Nations classifies the countries of the Middle East, as it includes UN bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), especially the Middle East countries on the Asian side. Within this classification, the Middle East in the Asian continent is divided into four groups: the Arabian Peninsula group, which includes seven countries, the Caucasus group, which includes three countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran group, and the Near East group, which includes seven countries. In addition to two groups in the African continent: the Middle East group (North African countries), and the Sub-Saharan Africa group. The study focuses on a modern set of demographic and economic indicators that form the economic map of the Middle Eastern countries, and it is possible to come up with the relative weight of the economic map of the Middle Eastern countries and the spatial differences between them.