It is not that they aren't worth the trouble, it's that our cities are worth the trouble.
The Middle East isn't worth the trouble. I don't know if you've been there, but it's nowhere I'd want to colonize. Most of it is general wasteland, whereas some garden spots, like Qatar, looks like the surface of Mars. Once you get north of Baghdad it's pleasent enough, if you like the Iowa-Nebraska kinda look.
Still, I'm all for the alternate fuel Manhattan project. I'd rather spend 500 billion on that than to keep bombing the place. Once the oil stops fueling their economies, they'll fall back on their second most lucrative industry, which appeared to me to be sheepherding. Shortly thereafter, the entire region will become as important as Tanzania, and we'll never hear from them again.