Middle East economic integration

This process aims to create a unified economic space that allows for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor across national borders within the region.

[2] Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that, "Governments can create the climate for economic growth...[but] only the private sector can produce a peace that will endure.

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, a leading architect of the Oslo peace plan, envisioned that:[1] The next stage, after bilateral and multilateral relationships have been established, will entail formation of regional industries through the cooperation of international bodies and independent international consortiums.

At this point, the regional economic process will be upgraded and the new reality, in which business precedes politics, will be instituted.

[4] Following the 1997 conference, the Middle East peace process suffered a serious setback due to Benjamin Netanyahu government's policies that alienated the Arab countries (namely the refusal to work towards establishment of an independent Palestine State), which refused to discuss economic cooperation with Israel unless it made some concessions.

The oil industry significantly impacts the entire region, both through the wealth that it generates and through the movement of labor. Most of the countries in the region have undertaken efforts to diversify their economies in recent years, however.
A handshake between King Hussein I of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , accompanied by former U.S. President Bill Clinton , during the Israel–Jordan peace negotiations , October 26, 1994
Arabic , Persian , Turkish , Kurdish and Hebrew , are the main languages spoken in the Middle East by over 400 million people; English and French are common supplementary languages.