ABSTRACT
All but three of the countries in the region (Israel, Iran and Turkey) are Arabicspeaking.
All of these countries (except for Iran) at one time formed part of the Ottoman Empire based in Constantinople (now Istanbul). During much of the twentieth century, Britain exercised various forms of control over most of the countries in the region while France was active in Syria and Lebanon. Events in the new millennium have confirmed the USA as the dominant power in the Middle East.
