Qatar

Qatar is on the Persian Gulf, with a land border with Saudi Arabia.

• It is about one twentieth the size of Great Britain.
  
• It is the world’s richest country per capita.
  
• It has the world’s third largest reserves of natural gas and reserves of more than 25 billion barrels of oil.
  
• It created the Al Jazeera news network.
  
• It has investments of hundreds of billions of dollars in Western companies.
  
• It will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
  
• The Al Thani family has ruled Qatar since the mid 1800s.
  
• When the Ottoman Empire conquered and ruled Qatar from 1871, the Al Thani family forced through semi-autonomous rule.
  
• The British took over in 1916 and withdrew its military in 1968.
  
• In 1968 Qatar joined with other States to form what became the United Arab Emirates but then quickly broke off from the other States.
  
• It exports to Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore, and China.
  
• It imports from USA, UEA, Saudi Arabia, UK, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, France
  
• Its major military supplier seems to be France, although the USA may have provided a defence shield against possible attack from Iran.
  
• The US and UK share an airbase in Qatar.
  
• Adult literacy is 96%
  
• Unemployment is less than 1.5%
  
• Most Qataris follow Wahhabism.
  

An article of September 7th 2014 in the New York Times describes international accusations that Qatar funds and supports Al Qaeda in Syria, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hamas in Gaza, the Muslim Botherhood across the Middle East, and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.