Which one among the following countries is NOT a part of the Arabian Peninsula?

Correct — C, Libya. The Arabian Peninsula is the block of land between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and seven states share it: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Libya sits on the other side of the Red Sea altogether, on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa between Egypt and Tunisia, and belongs to the Maghreb rather than to Arabia. Its Arab identity is linguistic and cultural, not geographical, which is the confusion the item is built on.

• (a)Kuwait — Kuwait occupies the north-eastern corner of the peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It is one of the seven peninsular states.
• (b)Oman — Oman holds the south-eastern corner of the peninsula, facing the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, with the Musandam exclave commanding the Strait of Hormuz.
• (d)Yemen — Yemen occupies the south-western corner of the peninsula, across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait from the Horn of Africa. It shares long land borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman.

The Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world, bounded by the Red Sea on the west, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea on the south, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf on the east. Saudi Arabia takes up most of it. The other six states are Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Iraq and Jordan touch its northern edge without being counted as peninsular states, and the whole of it lies in Asia.

The question exploits the gap between the political phrase 'Arab world' and the physical term 'Arabian Peninsula'. The Arab League has twenty-two members stretching from Mauritania to Oman, and Libya is one of them; the peninsula has only seven. Any item of this shape is solved by asking which side of the Red Sea a country sits on. Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco are African; Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the Gulf states are Asian.

• Seven states lie on the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
• The Red Sea separates the peninsula from Africa; the Bab-el-Mandeb strait at its southern end is barely 30 km wide.
• Libya is a Maghreb country of North Africa, bordering Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Algeria and Tunisia.
• The Strait of Hormuz, between Oman's Musandam exclave and Iran, is the outlet of the Persian Gulf.
• Membership of the Arab League is not the same as location on the peninsula — the League runs from Mauritania to Oman.

• Treating every Arabic-speaking country as part of the Arabian Peninsula.
• Forgetting that Iraq and Jordan touch the peninsula's north without being counted among its states.
• Confusing the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf when locating Hormuz.

A straight odd-one-out on physical location, where the distractors are all genuine peninsular states and the answer is an Arab country that is not on the peninsula.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following straits separates the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa?

  • (a)Strait of Hormuz
  • (b)Bab-el-Mandeb
  • (c)Strait of Malacca
  • (d)Palk Strait

  Answer(b) Bab-el-Mandeb — it links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Djibouti.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following countries does NOT border the Persian Gulf?

  • (a)Qatar
  • (b)Bahrain
  • (c)Jordan
  • (d)Kuwait

  Answer(c) Jordan — its only coastline is a short frontage on the Gulf of Aqaba at the head of the Red Sea.