The country bordering Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Iran is Iraq.
Iraq lies in West Asia at the meeting point of the Middle East’s Mesopotamian plain, northern mountains, and western desert. It shares borders with six countries: Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, and Jordan and Syria to the west. It also has a short coastline on the Persian Gulf.
This position has made Iraq a historic crossroads. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run through the country, supporting the ancient civilizations of Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria. Modern Iraq was formed from former Ottoman provinces after World War I, and its borders were shaped by twentieth-century treaties and international agreements.
A common mix-up is overlooking Iraq’s small Persian Gulf coastline and treating it as entirely landlocked. Iraq is not landlocked: its port of Basra and access through the Shatt al-Arab waterway connect it to the Gulf. The country’s capital, Baghdad, sits farther inland on the Tigris.