Mashriq
Eastern part of the Arab world
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The region includes the Arab-majority states of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Geography
As the word Mashriq refers to Arab countries located between the Mediterranean Sea and Iran, it is the companion term to Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب), the western half of the Arab world comprising Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya. Libya may also be regarded as straddling the two regions. Cyrenaica in eastern Libya is considered part of the Mashriq, whereas Tripolitania in western Libya is considered part of the Maghreb. Therefore Sirtica or the Gulf of Sidra is considered the dividing point between the Maghreb and Mashreq within the Arab world.
These geographical terms date from the early Islamic expansion. The Mashriq corresponds to the Bilad al-Sham and Mesopotamian regions combined. As of 2014, the Mashriq is home to 1.7% of the global population.
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Cooperation
All of the countries located in the Arab Mashreq area are members of the Arab League, the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, and the United Nations. The region cooperates in several projects including the Arab Mashreq International Road Network and the Arab Mashreq International Railway. Several nations are also members of the GCC and others have tried to achieve political unity in the past, such as the United Arab Republic in the 1950s and 1960s, which originally included both Egypt and Syria.