This important region is very heavily stereotyped, with people imagining camels trudging along sand dunes and searing winds blowing across the land when they hear the words 'Middle East'. These stereotypes are not necessarily wrong, but the Middle East/North Africa region is much more important than just an endless expanse of desert.
The Middle East provides an enormous amount of the worlds petroleum supply. These countries are the the most oil-rich countries in the world. Without them, we would simply run out of fossil fuels to power our planet.