Eight countries surround the Persian Gulf. Iran holds the entire eastern shore, while seven Arab states line the western and southern coasts: Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Between them they hold roughly half of the world’s proven oil reserves, and every barrel shipped out by sea passes through a single chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz.
A note on the name: the body of water has been called the Persian Gulf since antiquity and that remains the standard name in international usage, but most Arab states call it the Arabian Gulf, one of the world’s longest-running naming disputes, and a preview of the kind of map politics we covered when a Great Lake recently acquired two names.
The eight Gulf countries at a glance
| Country | Capital | Population | GCC | OPEC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇮🇷 Iran | Tehran | ~86 million | No | Yes |
| 🇮🇶 Iraq | Baghdad | ~45 million | No | Yes |
| 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | ~34 million | Yes | Yes |
| 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | Abu Dhabi | ~10 million | Yes | Yes |
| 🇴🇲 Oman | Muscat | ~5 million | Yes | No |
| 🇰🇼 Kuwait | Kuwait City | ~4.5 million | Yes | Yes |
| 🇶🇦 Qatar | Doha | ~3 million | Yes | No (left 2019) |
| 🇧🇭 Bahrain | Manama | ~1.5 million | Yes | No |
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
The Gulf Cooperation Council was founded in Abu Dhabi on 25 May 1981, in the shadow of the Iranian Revolution and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, by six Arab monarchies: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman. Membership has never changed. Iran and Iraq, the Gulf’s two other littoral states, have never belonged, a distinction the map below makes clear.
The council pursues economic and political integration among its members: a joint defence force (the Peninsula Shield Force, created 1984), a free-trade area (1983), a customs union (2003) and a common market (2008). Its unity has been tested, most severely by the 2017-2021 blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, healed at the Al-Ula summit in January 2021, but the bloc has emerged as one of the world’s most consequential economic clubs. Its current Secretary-General is Kuwait’s Jasem Albudaiwi, in office since 2023.
The economics have shifted too. Saudi Arabia remains OPEC’s anchor and the world’s largest crude oil exporter, but the old line that Qatar leads the world in LNG no longer holds: the United States overtook both Qatar and Australia in 2023 to become the largest LNG exporter, with Qatar’s giant North Field expansion aiming to reclaim ground later this decade. Meanwhile every GCC state is spending oil revenue on a post-oil future, from Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 giga-projects to the UAE’s tech and aviation hubs.
The Gulf War (1990-91)
The region gave its name to one of the defining conflicts of the late 20th century. On 2 August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait, claiming it as a historical province. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions, and a US-led coalition of some 35 nations, the largest assembled since the Second World War, massed in Saudi Arabia. Operation Desert Storm opened with a five-week air campaign on 17 January 1991; the ground offensive that followed on 24 February liberated Kuwait in roughly 100 hours. The war was also a media milestone: the first conflict broadcast live around the clock, making CNN a household name.
The Gulf today: the world’s energy chokepoint
The Gulf’s geography still concentrates global risk in one narrow waterway. About a fifth of the world’s oil and a large share of its LNG passes through the Strait of Hormuz, just 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest, between Iran and Oman. When tensions spike, as they did during the 2026 Hormuz crisis, the entire world economy feels the Gulf’s pulse. That is the enduring story of this map: eight countries, half the world’s oil, one narrow exit.
