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Qatar will likely be on the world stage prefer it has by no means been earlier than because the small, energy-rich nation hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup later this month.
The nation, on a thumb-shaped peninsula that juts out into the Persian Gulf, has seen its worldwide profile rise as Doha used its large offshore pure fuel fields to make its nation one of many world’s richest per-capita.
It has used that cash to host the event, in addition to construct out the Arab world’s most-recognized satellite tv for pc information channel, Al Jazeera, assemble a significant army base that hosts U.S. troops and turn out to be a trusted interlocutor for the West — even with the Taliban.
Right here’s extra to learn about Qatar forward of the World Cup.
QATAR’S PLACE IN THE WORLD
Qatar, pronounced like saying the phrase “cutter” with a gentle “r,” sits on the Arabian Peninsula and shares a land border with Saudi Arabia. It’s additionally close to the island nation of Bahrain, in addition to the United Arab Emirates, house to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It sits throughout the Persian Gulf from Iran and shares its large offshore pure fuel subject with it. Qatar is about twice the scale of the U.S. state of Delaware. Nearly all of its 2.9 million folks stay round its capital, Doha, on its east coast. Qatar is a primarily flat, desert nation, the place temperatures in the summertime go above 40 levels Celsius (104 levels Fahrenheit) with excessive humidity.
GOVERNANCE IN QATAR
Qatar is an autocratic nation overseen by its ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Tamim, 42, took energy in June 2013 when his father stepped down. The emir wields absolute energy within the nation, although a 45-seat council does supply recommendation. As in different Gulf Arab nations, political events are banned. The best to type unions and strike stays extraordinarily restricted. There aren’t any unbiased human rights organizations working within the nation. Just some 10% of its inhabitants are residents who take pleasure in huge cradle-to-grave authorities advantages. Naturalization is uncommon.
QATAR’S HISTORY
The Al Thani household has dominated Qatar since 1847, although it was first underneath the Ottoman after which the British empire. Qatar grew to become an unbiased nation in 1971 because the British left the area. Oil exports started after World Struggle II, although it will take till 1997 earlier than Qatar started transport out liquified pure fuel to the world. That new cash powered Qatar’s regional ambitions. It based the satellite tv for pc information community Al Jazeera, which introduced an Arab perspective to mass media that helped gasoline the 2011 Arab Spring protests. It additionally launched Qatar Airways, a significant airline for East-West journey.
QATAR’S INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Qatar follows an ultraconservative type of Sunni Islam often called Wahhabism, although in contrast to neighboring Saudi Arabia, foreigners can drink alcohol. Its religion informs its politics. Qatar backed Islamists within the 2011 Arab Spring, together with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, in addition to those that rose up in opposition to Syria President Bashar Assad. Al Jazeera grew to become well-known for working statements from al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Qatar has additionally served as an middleman for the militant group Hamas, in addition to host of the negotiations between america and the Taliban that led to America’s 2021 withdraw from Afghanistan. Its help of Islamists, partly, led to a yearslong boycott of the nation by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE . That boycott solely ended as President Joe Biden ready to enter the White Home.
QATAR’S MILITARY IMPORTANCE
After permitting Western troops to be based mostly in Qatar through the 1991 Gulf Struggle, the nation constructed its large Al Udeid Air Base for over $1 billion. American troops started secretly utilizing the bottom after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror assaults and the next invasion of Afghanistan. Use of the bottom grew to become public information throughout a Mideast journey by then-Vice President Dick Cheney in March 2002, although sensitivity in regards to the American presence there continued for years. America then moved the ahead headquarters of the U.S. army’s Central Command to Al Udeid in 2003 an ran air operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, together with through the rise of the Islamic State group and the evacuation of Kabul in 2021. It hosts some 8,000 U.S. troops as we speak. Turkey additionally maintains a army base in Qatar.
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Comply with Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
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