Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey in Regional Economic Bloc (Economic PLAN‪)‬

Repeated attempts made in the past years to forge even a semblance of unity among the 22 Arab countries have foundered on the rock of deep political differences. To this day, unity in the sharply-divided Arab world is still a far-fetched goal. Likewise, strenuous and energetic efforts to achieve a sort of economic unity among Arab countries, including a common Arab market along the pattern of the European Union's common market, have failed to make any major breakthrough, mainly because of political disputes. Even modest steps taken by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to achieve economic unity among its oil-rich countries have fallen short of the people's expectations. Repeated calls by GCC member states--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain--in the past years for a unified currency, a uniform customs system and a free trade zone have yet to be translated into action. Nonetheless, amid the gloomy prospects for Arab political and economic unity, a new economic bloc is emerging in the Middle East region, raising hopes for some sort of joint economic cooperation. Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and non-Arab Turkey recently initialed agreements to establish a free trade zone among the four states. The move was viewed as part of attempts to establish a regional economic bloc to cope with the effects of the world economic crisis.