AP News Guide: What to know about the Qatar crisis
July 2, 2017
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar likely faces a deadline this weekend to comply with a list of demands issued by Arab nations that have cut diplomatic ties to the energy-rich country, though its leaders already have dismissed the ultimatum.
Here’s a look at the ongoing crisis, the worst to grip the region since Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Qatar is a nation about the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut which juts out like a thumb on the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. It has the highest per-capita income in the world due to its natural gas reserves, the third-largest on the planet after Russia and Iran. Just over 10 percent of its 2.2 million people are Qataris, with the rest foreign workers. Its people follow an ultraconservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism, though unlike neighboring Saudi Arabia, women can drive and foreigners can drink alcohol. Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
A WIDENING GULF
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties to Qatar on June 5. They also stopped Qatar Airways flights from using their airspace, closed off the small country’s sole land border with Saudi Arabia and blocked its ships from using their ports. They say the crisis stems from Qatar’s support for extremist groups in the region, charges denied by Doha. The four nations have also pointed to Qatar’s close relationship with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore gas field that provides the peninsular nation its wealth.
