Qatar seen most peaceful in Middle East as Israel dips, Turkey ties Iran: GPI

Qatar ranked as the most peaceful while war-ravaged Yemen was the least in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2022, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI) released Wednesday.

Israel's peacefulness score dropped the most from 2021 to 2022, falling eight places to 143rd globally. The report cited Israel’s worsening ties with its neighbors — particularly the Palestinians — and political instability inside the country as the main drivers for the decline. 

The index placed Turkey as the least peaceful country in Europe ranking, and tied with Iran as the 147th most peaceful country globally.

According to the Australia-based institute’s Annual Peace Index, which ranks 163 countries and territories and covers 99.7% of the global population, the Middle East and North Africa region recorded the second biggest improvement in peacefulness, but remained at the bottom of the regional peace index. The rankings are based on 14 internal and 9 external criteria.

“Conflict and terrorism in the Middle East were key drivers of the global deterioration in peacefulness until 2015, but in the past eight years conflicts in other regions have underpinned the global decline in peacefulness,” the report read.

It went on, “Several post-conflict countries in the region recorded improvements in peacefulness, including Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Libya recorded the largest improvement in peacefulness in the region."

Along with Libya, Algeria also saw a significant improvement by jumping to 96th place globally from 109th in 2021. Morocco, meanwhile, saw one of the biggest declines from the previous year by falling 10 places to 84th globally. 

In the Gulf region, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait saw a significant reduction of peacefulness from the previous year, falling by 15, nine and four places, respectively. Oman recorded a significant improvement by rising 16 places from the previous year to 48th place globally.

The global rankings for Middle East and North Africa region are as follows:

21. Qatar 

35. Kuwait 

48. Oman 

62. Jordan 

75. United Arab Emirates

81. Tunisia 

84. Morocco 

96. Algeria 

108. Bahrain

119. Saudi Arabia

121. Egypt 

134. Palestine

135. Lebanon 

137. Libya 

143. Israel

147. Iran and Turkey

154. Iraq 

155. Sudan  

161. Syria

162. Yemen  

The report also noted that the epicenter of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Sahel region. “The Sahel region accounted for more terrorism deaths in 2022 than both South Asia and MENA combined. Deaths from terrorism have been increasing in sub-Saharan Africa, yet they have been decreasing in every other region since 2019,” it read.

The index lists Turkey within the Europe region, which remains the most peaceful region globally. The country dropped two places from 145th to 147th in 2021, the index showed. Iceland was found to be the most peaceful country in the whole list of 163 countries, a ranking it has sustained for 15 years in a row.