Which country was the only original member of OPEC outside of the Middle East?
OPEC Iraqi prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim, whose country had skipped the 1959 congress. Government representatives from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met in Baghdad to discuss ways to increase the price of crude oil produced by their countries, and ways to respond to unilateral actions by the MOCs. Despite strong US opposition: "Together with Arab and non-Arab producers, Saudi Arabia formed the Organization of Petroleum Export Countries (OPEC) to secure the best price available from the major oil corporations." The Middle Eastern members originally called for OPEC headquarters to be in Baghdad or Beirut, but Venezuela argued for
Economy of the Middle East gold standard, hurting oil-producing countries which collected revenue in US dollars. While the OPEC embargo exacerbated the deep recession and inflation in the United States, the economies of the Middle East witnessed rapid expansion and growth in GDP as well as an increase in the Middle East's share of global world trade from 3.6% in 1972 to 8% in 1979. In addition to experiencing economic growth, the Middle East also made improvements in development indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy, and a decrease in unemployment across most sectors. Following the oil boom and the OPEC embargo of the