The Arab world consists of 22 countries in North Africa and in the Middle East. They all speak Arabic language and are united by history and culture. These nations have a combined population of about 358 million people. The Arab world produces 80% of the world oil supplies. About 80% of the world's wealth and industries are in the developed countries. The economies and the industries of the advanced nations of the world rely completely for daily survival on the Middle East oil resources in this 21st century.
Egypt was the center of civilization in the ancient world. The pyramids at Giza, one of the great wonders of the ancient times still challenge today's advancement in the field of superstructural engineering of the 21st century. Egypt is strategically important to the Middle East for a number of reasons enumerated below:
(i) Egypt is the most populous Arab nation in the Middle East with a population of about 80 million people.
(ii) Egypt ancient civilization, surviving monuments and her tourism industry attract millions of tourists yearly to Egypt from all over the world and employ about 12% of the Egyptian workforce.
(iii) According to the online encyclopedia the Wikipedia: "The economy of Egypt is one of the most
developed and diversified in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and service at almost equal production levels. The Egyptian economy has been developing rapidly during the 2000s, due in part to legislation aimed at luring investments, coupled with trade and market liberalization".
For the past three days, the protests in Egypt that was inspired by the people led revolution in Tunisia is getting bigger and bigger by the day. The police interventions and crackdowns on the protesters have failed. Today's night time curfew imposed on the major cities in Egypt did not work to curb these political crises. The closing down of the Internet services, the social media (Facebook and Twitter), cellphones and blackberry services in the entire country have also failed to work. The public address by the nation's President Hosni Mubarak, and calling for calm and the dissolution of his government entire cabinet also failed to work. The last option left that is being used against these protesters is the military. The military intervention has also failed in addressing these grave and dangerous situations on the ground in Egypt.
If these protests succeeded and resulted in the removal of the President Hosni Mubarak from power, then the aftermath consequences will reverberate so much in the corridors of power of the entire Arab World and the Middle East in particular and the world in general. The outcome could be very grave in its implications for the following reasons:
(i) The Muslim Brotherhood which is the largest Islamic opposition party in Egypt today and a major force behind these protests could end up in power in Egypt. This development may result in the establishment of the largest Islamic government in the Middle East.
(ii) If these protests resulted in a power change in Egypt. The new government may break the peace treaty that Egypt signed with Isreal in the 1970s. This could set the entire Middle East into the biggest crisis in this 21st century.
(iii) Egypt is the America's biggest ally in the Arab World for the last few decades and the second biggest recipient of the United States foreign aid of about $1.5 billion yearly in military assistance. This development could damage the American-Egyptian diplomatic relationship that is a key to the peace in the Middle East for decades now.
(iv) The Suez Canal in Egypt is strategic to the world oil supply. About 2.5 million barrels of oil flow daily through those pipelines under the canal to the international oil market. This could be affected if there is a change of power in Egypt via these ongoing political revolts. This could result in international oil embargo, oil glut and blockage to free movements of the oil tankers in the region.
(iv) These political protests if they ended up in a change of power in Egypt, this could encourage similar uprisings and protests by ordinary people in the entire Arab World against their sit-tight rulers, dictators and monarchies. This may also be the biggest game changer of the 21st century in the Arab World that could changed the entire political landscape of the whole Middle East for many decades to come.
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