What is Jordan’s Primary Natural Resource Export

Like oil and h2o

The Middle East has always had a rich abundance of natural resource, although which resource are coveted and valued has changed over time. Today, abundant petroleum fields dominate the area’s economy. The Heart Eastward is similarly disproportionately rich in natural gas (32 per centum of the world’s known natural gas reserves are in the region) and
phosphate
(Morocco alone has more than half of the world’due south reserves).

Water has always been an of import resource in the Middle E — for its relative scarcity rather than its abundance. Disputes over rights to water (for case, building a dam in 1 country upstream from some other) are a fundamental function of the political relationships in the region. H2o for irrigation is necessary for many of the
ecosystems
to sustain crops.

Early Western control of oil

In the 18th and 19th centuries, major European nations competed to found and maintain colonies around the earth. Superior military machine power and economical leverage allowed them to create new markets for their manufactured goods, and to exploit the natural resources of the African, American, and Asian continents.

Since the early part of the 19th century, Europeans vied to control the Middle E. The
Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 divided the
Ottoman
lands betwixt the British and the French, giving those nations control over whatever natural resources, nigh importantly oil.

Modern armies were thirsty for oil. The British navy was the first to switch from coal to oil in 1912, and other new technologies, like automobiles and airplanes, quickly and drastically increased the need for fuel.

The United states of america was becoming an important player in world affairs during the early 20th century, and soon Americans found they, too, had a vested interest in developing and controlling oil reserves in the Heart Eastward to supply their growing needs.

Struggles over Iranian oil

More than one,000 years ago,
Zoroastrians
in Iran revered the perpetual flames that burned where natural gas vented from the earth. In the early on 20th century, British prospectors discovered oil in Iran and in 1908 began the start large-scale drilling projects there. The government of Iran sold the sectional right to explore and drill for oil in Iran — a
“concession”
— to the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
(AIOC). The British authorities bought a controlling stake in AIOC, and past the start of World War I, Iranian oil was Britain’s most important strategic resource.

In time, Iranians grew to resent the AIOC. The terms of the concession were and then unbalanced that British investors were rewarded handsomely while the regime of Iran made very little turn a profit. Foreign businessmen and engineers in Islamic republic of iran led extravagantly wealthy lifestyles that contrasted sharply with the poverty of the local population.

Frustration with strange exploitation led to
nationalization.
The Iranian government of
Mohammed Mossadeq nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1953, but in a
insurrection
engineered by the American Primal Intelligence Agency (CIA), this nationalist government was overthrown, and a government friendly to Western interests was installed nether the control of the
Shah of Islamic republic of iran.

The continued economical and cultural influence of the West and the repressive nature of the Shah’s authorities led to the
Iranian Revolution of 1979. The Shah was overthrown and exiled, and the new Islamic Republic of Islamic republic of iran was established, led by the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

American dependence on Middle Eastern oil

Subsequently Earth War II, U.k. and France gave up command over much of the Middle East, as they could no longer afford to keep their imperialist strategies, either politically or economically. But a new world power, the United States, increased its presence in the region equally American demands for oil were quickly growing and outstripping domestic supply.

Standard Oil of California first discovered oil in Saudi arabia in 1936. The huge deposits there and in the neighboring
Persian Gulf
countries — the United Arab Emirates, State of kuwait, and Bahrain — established these countries as some of the richest in the earth.

Continuing American military power and domestic lifestyles depend on available admission to Middle Eastern oil and reasonably low globe petroleum prices. Thus, U.S. foreign policy initiatives work to support the stability of pro-U.S. governments, prevent anti-U.Due south. powers or blocs from forming, and reduce tension and potential armed conflict in the region.

Relations between the Saudi and U.S. governments have traditionally remained stiff. Some Americans take questioned that human relationship since the events of September 11, 2001, when
Osama bin Laden and several other Saudis were involved in the attacks on the Globe Merchandise Middle and the Pentagon. At the same time, many Saudis mistrust their government’south close relationship with the U.Southward. and resent other American policies in the region, such as U.S. support for Israel and the
U.South.-led bombing of Iraq. The presence of armed U.Due south. troops in Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam — is particularly galling to many Muslims.

Because the Eye East has the world’s largest deposits of oil (55 percentage of the earth’s reserves) in an easily extracted grade, Middle Eastern oil continues to exist necessary to the United states. American dependence on foreign oil has grown steadily over the years; currently nearly 55 percent of the oil consumed in the U.S. is imported. This reliance on foreign oil leaves the country vulnerable to unilateral political and economic acts by oil producing countries. For case, although the U.S. advocated economic
sanctions
confronting Iraq after the Gulf War, nine per centum of the oil used by Americans after the war still came from Iraq, shipped through other countries.

The positive and negative faces of oil

Oil money has created both opportunities and problems for the region.

Center Eastern nations have learned to manipulate their production of oil as an international strategy. After the unsuccessful
Yom Kippur War with Israel in 1973, an
OPEC
oil embargo past Arab nations demonstrated a new style to influence European and American policy. Oil prices quadrupled from $3 a barrel in 1972 to $12 a butt in 1974. In the U.S., the era of cheap gas came to an end, stimulating inquiry on increasing energy efficiency, conservation, and alternative fuels as well as exploration for alternative sources of oil.

Uneven distribution of petroleum deposits has created a disparity of wealth and power in the Heart Due east. Gulf countries with relatively small-scale populations take the most oil. When workers from countries with big, poor populations, such as Egypt, come to the Gulf region to piece of work, they are ofttimes treated as second-class citizens. Meanwhile, wealthy Saudis and Kuwaitis may holiday in Egypt, openly drinking alcohol and displaying other behaviors that would non be permitted in their home countries. Fifty-fifty inside oil-rich nations themselves, there is a large gap between rich and poor.

The future of oil

Oil will continue to exist an important regional and global issue. In fact, some question whether ane reason the U.S. seeks to maintain influence in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the
Taliban
is American interest in Central Asian oil and a possible pipeline through Afghanistan. Some estimates testify that by 2050, landlocked Cardinal Asia will provide more than eighty pct of the oil distributed to the U.S. As a outcome, the control of pipelines through Afghanistan or Turkey to distribution centers will be of increasing importance to the U.s.a..

Water, water, but not everywhere

Another resources of vital importance to the region is water. Egypt, Iran, and Turkey are the simply countries in the region with abundant fresh h2o resources. Roughly two-thirds of the Arab world depend on sources outside their borders for their water supply.

Water wars

The scarcity of water is a major cause of tension between states in the region. Erstwhile U.Northward. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has said that the next war in the Middle Eastward volition be fought over h2o.

The Jordan River provides 75 percentage of Jordan’s water and sixty percent of Israel’south. In the early 1960s, Arab nations worked to divert the headwaters of the Hashemite kingdom of jordan abroad from Israel and towards Jordan. One of Israel’southward objectives in the
Arab-Israeli Six Day State of war of 1967, among others, was to command the
Golan Heights
and prevent this plan from being carried out. Israel is still reluctant to restore control of the Golan Heights to Syrian arab republic. Though often ignored in Western analyses, water is one of the most contentious problems in the discussion of any peace plan for the Jordan Valley.

The Euphrates River, which originates in Turkey, provides virtually of the water for eastern Syria and well-nigh all of Iraq. Turkey plans to build almost two dozen hydroelectric power dams for its growing population and industries. These dams, joining the completed Atatürk Dam, would drastically reduce the water available to Syria and Iraq. Syria, in plough, has dammed part of the Euphrates under its command, farther choking off the water supply to Iraq. International complaints and protests are often challenged on the grounds that the dams are domestic infrastructure projects.

Agricultural resources

While most Americans may think of the Middle E equally primarily desert, agronomics has been important for millennia, with farmers adapting to environmental conditions in different locations.

The history of cotton fiber in Egypt is a good example of how Europeans have exploited the region’s agronomical resources. During the American Civil War, American cotton grew scarce, and Egyptian cotton became increasingly of import to England. Agreements signed in 1880 with European powers meant that no
tariffs
were applied to cotton. This meant that more and more than farmable land was used to grow cotton wool instead of nutrient crops. Virtually of the profits were taken by Egypt’s small ruling elite and the Europeans. This system remained in place until the
Egyptian Revolution of 1952, when the era of state-sponsored industrialization and a movement toward cocky-sufficiency began, reducing the corporeality of cash crops, like cotton fiber, that were exported.

Heart Eastern cotton wool and material products, even so, are still an important export of the region. More and more garments in American malls, for example, carry a “Made in Turkey” characterization. Other of import agronomical exports found in supermarkets around the world include citrus, dried dates, figs and apricots, and olive products.

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