Is Iran an Arab Country? 🇮🇷

Is Iran an Arab country? No. Iran is on two of three maps people mix up: the Middle East (no official border; the usual map includes Iran, Turkey and Israel) and the Muslim-majority world. It is not in the Arab League, and its official language is Persian, written in Arabic script with four added letters (پ چ ژ گ). Iran does have an Arab minority, mostly in Khuzestan; estimates of its size differ.

The Arab League has 22 members, from Mauritania to Oman, including Somalia (where most people speak Somali; Arabic is also recognised) and the Comoros; Chad, where Arabic is an official language, is an observer, not a member. Most of the world's Muslims are not Arab: the 22 Arab League countries hold about 1 in 5 of the world's Muslims (Pew 2020 country data), and Indonesia has the most, roughly 240 million (Pew, 2020). Jakarta is about 7,900 km from Mecca. Muslim-majority = Pew Research Center 2020 estimates. Status as of 30 Oct 2026.

Turkey: Middle East or Europe? Reply with your side.

Sources:
Member states of the Arab League (Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_Arab_League
Syria chairs the UN Arab Group; "22 Arab League states" (Arab News, 3 Feb 2026) - https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2631623
Arab League readmits Syria (NBC News, 7 May 2023) - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/arab-league-readmits-syria-relations-assad-normalize-rcna83239
Chad to join Arab League as observer (Al Jazeera, 29 Apr 2005) - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/4/29/chad-to-join-arab-league-as-observer
Middle East (Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East
How the Global Muslim Population Changed From 2010 to 2020 (Pew Research Center, 9 Jun 2025) - https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/muslim-population-change/
Religious composition by country 2010-2020 (Pew Research Center) - https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/feature/religious-composition-by-country-2010-2020/
Constitution of Iran, Art. 15 (Constitute Project) - https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Iran_1989
Iranian languages: writing systems (Britannica) - https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iranian-languages/Writing-systems
Somalia (Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia
Chad (Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad

Map data: Natural Earth (public domain). Satellite imagery: Sentinel-2 cloudless - https://s2maps.eu by EOX IT Services GmbH (Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016 & 2017). Flags: Wikimedia Commons (public domain); the Chad and Indonesia flags drawn to their official designs. Colour layers, rings, letter tiles and the tape are drawn.
Voice, music and sound effects: ElevenLabs and the channel's own sound library.

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