Politics of the Middle East Midterm 2

Egypt population (2026)

120 million

Iran population (2026)

92.5 million

Turkey population (2026)

88.5 million

Sudan population (2026)

53 million

Algeria population (2026)

48 million

Iraq population (2026)

48 million

Yemen population (2026)

42.5 million

Morocco population (2026)

39 million

Saudi Arabia population (2026)

38 million (25 million citizens, 13 million expatriates)

Syria population (2026)

26.5 million

Tunisia population (2026)

12.5 million

Jordan population (2026)

11.5 million (includes over 3 million non-Jordanian citizens)

UAE population (2026)

11.5 million (1.5 million Emirati citizens, 10 million expatriates)

Israel population (2026)

9.6 million (includes 2.1 million Israeli-Arab citizens)

Libya population (2026)

7.5 million (includes about 900,000 foreign nationals)

Lebanon population (2026)

6 million (includes about 1 million Syrians and 400,000 Palestinians)

Oman population (2026)

5.5 million (2.4 million citizens, 3.1 million expatriates)

Kuwait population (2026)

5 million (1.5 million citizens, 3.5 million expatriates)

West Bank and East Jerusalem population (2026)

4 million Palestinians only

Qatar population (2026)

3.1 million (400,000 citizens, 2.7 million expatriates)

Gaza population (2026)

2.3 million

Bahrain population (2026)

1.6 million (700,000 citizens, 900,000 expatriates)

Israeli settlers in occupied territory (handout)

About 500,000 in the West Bank plus about 250,000 in East Jerusalem

Which Arab Gulf state is NOT in the GCC?

Iraq

Six GCC members

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar

Lebanon: top three offices

President = Maronite Christian; Prime Minister = Sunni Muslim; Speaker of Parliament = Shia Muslim

Lebanon parliament total seats

128 (64 Christian, 64 Muslim)

Lebanon seats: Maronite

34

Lebanon seats: Greek Orthodox

14

Lebanon seats: Greek Catholic

8

Lebanon seats: Armenian Orthodox

5

Lebanon seats: Sunni

27

Lebanon seats: Shia

27 (Shia are about 40 percent of the population, so under-represented)

Lebanon seats: Druze

8

Lebanon seats: Alawite

2

Number of recognized religious communities in Lebanon (Battleground)

18

Ruling family of Saudi Arabia

Al-Saud

Ruling family of Kuwait

Al-Sabah

Ruling family of Bahrain

Al-Khalifa

Ruling family of Qatar

Al-Thani

Ruling family of Oman

Al-Said (Al-Sa'id)

Ruling family of UAE / Abu Dhabi

Al-Nahyan (Dubai: Al-Maktoum)

Saudi leaders

King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)

Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ)

Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE

Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum

Ruler of Dubai; UAE Prime Minister and Vice President

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani

Emir of Qatar

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Led al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) 2003 to June 2006; put sectarian war on Shia at top of the jihadi agenda

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

ISIS leader 2010 to Oct 2019; declared the caliphate in 2014 from Mosul

ISIS lineage

AQI -> ISI -> ISIL/ISIS -> IS ("the Caliphate"), capital Raqqa

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syrian president since January 2025; formerly Abu Mohammad al-Julani (al-Golani); led Nusra Front then HTS

Jabhat al-Nusra / Nusra Front

Created 2012; became Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from 2016

Osama bin Laden

Al-Qaeda founder; killed by US forces May 2011

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Led al-Qaeda from May 2011 until a US drone strike killed him in Kabul on July 31, 2022

Current al-Qaeda leader (handout)

Saif al-Adel (believed)

Ayatollah Khomeini

Founder of the Islamic Republic; first Supreme Leader; died June 1989

Ali Khamenei

Second Supreme Leader (June 1989 to Feb 28, 2026)

Mojtaba Khamenei

Third Supreme Leader of Iran since March 6, 2026

Velayat-e-faqih

Rule (or authority) of the jurist; basis of Iran's clerical system

IRGC

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; created 1979 because the new regime distrusted the Artesh (regular army)

Quds Force

Elite external-operations branch of the IRGC

Qassem Soleimani

Quds Force commander from the late 1990s until killed by a US strike at Baghdad airport on Jan 3, 2020

Esmail Qaani

Quds Force commander since Jan 3, 2020

Masoud Pezeshkian

President of Iran since July 2024

Abbas Araghchi

Iran's foreign minister

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf

Speaker of Iran's parliament

Mahsa Amini

Died after being arrested by the morality police in Sept 2022; sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom protests

Hafez al-Assad

President of Syria 1971 to June 2000

Bassel al-Assad

Hafez's heir apparent; died in a 1994 car accident

Bashar al-Assad

President of Syria July 2000 to Dec 8, 2024

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Egypt's president 1954 to 1970; led the July 1952 revolution

Anwar Sadat

Egypt's president Sept 1970 to Oct 6, 1981 (assassinated)

Hosni Mubarak

Egypt's president Oct 1981 to Feb 11, 2011

Mohamed Morsi

Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt June 2012 to July 3, 2013

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Egypt's president since 2014; led the 2013 coup as defense minister

SCAF

Supreme Council of the Armed Forces; ruled Egypt after Mubarak fell

Habib Bourguiba

Tunisia's president 1957 to 1987

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

Tunisia's president Nov 1987 to Jan 14, 2011 (fled)

Kais Saied

Tunisia's president since 2019

Mohamed Bouazizi

Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation (Sidi Bouzid) started the Arab Spring

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Yemen's president 1978 to Nov 2011; assassinated Dec 2017

Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi

Yemen's president (then nominal president) Nov 2011 to April 2022; replaced by the PLC

Abdul Malik al-Houthi

Houthi leader since 2004

Muammar al-Qadhafi

Libya's ruler 1969 to Oct 2011

Seif al-Islam al-Qadhafi

Qadhafi's son and intended successor

Khalifa Haftar

Commands the Libyan National Army; based in Tobruk/Benghazi (east)

Abdul Hamid Dbeibah

Prime Minister of the internationally recognized GNU in Tripoli

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey's president; AKP co-founder; PM from 2002

Abdullah Ocalan

Imprisoned leader of the PKK (captured 1999)

King Abdullah II

King of Jordan

King Muhammad VI

King of Morocco

Wael Ghonim

Google MENA marketing head; ran the "We Are All Khaled Said" Facebook page; face of the Egyptian "Facebook generation"

Khaled Said

Young Egyptian beaten to death by police in Alexandria after photographing a drug deal

Karama

Dignity (Arab uprising slogan)

Al-'adl

Justice (Arab uprising slogan)

Hurriya

Freedom (Arab uprising slogan)

Degage / Irhal

"Go away / get lost" (Tunisia / Egypt chants)

Tahrir to Taghyyir

Liberation to Change

Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya

Satellite news channels central to the Arab uprisings

Four leaders who fell Nov 2010 to Nov 2011

Ben Ali, Mubarak, Qadhafi, Saleh

Jumlukiyya

Merged "republic + monarchy": nominal republics where power is passed down (Assad, Mubarak, Saleh, Qadhafi, Ben Ali)