Qatar
دولة قطر
Saudis Overtake Qatar as Syria Sponsor
Hassan Hassan, The National
The Attention-Starved Teen of the Mideast
Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg
Hamas Again Avoids Change
Hussein Ibish, NOW Lebanon
The Gulf War over the War in Syria
Michael Weiss, NOW Lebanon
What Is an Expensive Resort Doing in Eritrea?
Armin Rosen, Atlantic
Saudi authorities had consistently declined to meet the opposition, despite repeated requests. This was partly because the kingdom has opposed Muslim Brotherhood dominance in the...(full article)
Here is the genius of Qatar, the peanut-sized Persian Gulf state that provides material support to Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and possibly some of Syria’s jihadist rebel group...(full article)
Reports are coming thick and fast that Hamas is preparing to reconfirm Khaled Mishaal as the head of its Politburo. He will, apparently, have the Gaza-based leader Ismail Hanniyeh ...(full article)
For the casual observer, the Syrian opposition has been, for close to two years, an overlong Monty Python joke of self-cannibalization, petty revolutionary factionalism, and outsiz...(full article)
Dahlak Kebir is a sunbaked and vaguely Y-shaped splotch of rock and dry vegetation sitting a few miles off the coast of Massawa, near the mouth of the Red Sea. The Dahlak archipela...(full article)
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Collapse of Al Jazeera's Credibility - Ghaffar Hussain, The Commentator
The fact that the channel is owned and tightly controlled by the undemocratic and authoritarian Qatari royal family, that jails independent journalists who criticise the regime at ...
Is Qatar Fueling al-Qaeda's Wars? - David Roberts, The Gulf Blog
Claims that Qatar is supporting a range of Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in the Sahel are not new. In June 2012 the French satirical magazine Canard Enchaine quoted French Military in...
Brotherhood's Agenda, Egypt's Catastrophe - Ilan Berman, Forbes
It has been heralded as a humanitarian gesture and a sign of Arab leadership, but Qatar’s decision last week to double its $2.5 billion aid package to Egypt is also a telling in...
Why America Needs Al Jazeera - Patrick Theros, The Daily Beast
I, for one, was delighted to learn this week that Qatar-based news organization Al Jazeera had purchased Al Gore’s Current TV in a savvy move to bring the Middle East’s...
How the Merkel Doctrine Is Changing Germany - Der Spiegel
Germany used to be extremely careful about where it exported its weapons. In recent years, however, Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown a preference for sending high-tech armaments ...
Bright, Shiny Tinderboxes of the Persian Gulf - Pankaj Mishra, Bloomberg
Visiting the Gulf monarchies over the years, I have heard numerous tales of merciless exploitation, denunciations of the overpaid and idle native citizens and grievances about the ...
How America Looks from the Middle East - Riad Kahwaji, INEGMA
The U.S. Administration of President Barak Obama is about to complete its first term in office and is hoping to win another term in the upcoming elections on November 6. In previou...
Tunnels of Gaza: Isolation or Escape? - Nicolas Pelham, NY Review of Books
Undoubtedly, Hamas would prefer an open relationship with Cairo. It says it will crack down on its Salafi militants and plug their conduits to Sinai. “More than anyone we see...
Qatar Embraces Syrian Rebels, But Also Hamas - Tony Karon, Time
Mindful of its declining appetite for projecting power in the Middle East, the U.S. is relying on more activist partners in the region such Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to arm th...
Why Is Qatar Mucking Around in Gaza? - David Roberts, Foreign Policy
Doha's meddling in Palestinian affairs is much more about Iran than it is about Israel....
Who's Arming Whom in Syria? - Rania Abouzeid, Time
Vast swathes of northern Syria, especially in the province of Idlib, have slipped out of the hands of President Bashar Assad, if not quite out of his reach. The area is now a de f...
Syria Proxy War May Rip Apart Mideast - Seumas Milne, The Guardian
Western and Gulf regime support for rebel fighters isn't bringing freedom to Syrians but escalating sectarian conflict and war....
What Will Morsi Do About Syria? - Cumali Onal, Sunday's Zaman
Syria is a crucial country for Egypt. Even though there was a failed attempt of the two countries to become a single sovereign state during the Gamal Abdel Nasser era, they have ...
Qatar Brotherhood Ties Affect Entire Region - Ahmed Azem, The National
The alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar is becoming a noticeable factor in the reshaping of the Middle East. There are several striking aspects to this evolving and...
Saudi Arabia's More Perfect Union - Bruce Riedel, The National Interest
The Saudis don't try to impose their will on the neighborhood but instead try to persuade the others to follow. Even last year's GCC intervention in Bahrain was at the invitation...
Qatar's New Influence Won't Last - Barak Barfi, CNN
With Middle East heavyweights such as Egypt rocked by instability, Qatar has helped fill the leadership vacuum in the region. The tiny Persian Gulf emirate has been hyperactive on ...
The Qatar Bubble - Blake Hounshell, Foreign Policy
Sultan Al Qassemi, the Emirati commentator and prolific tweeter, jokes that he tries to post one article every day on the rise of Qatar, the tiny Gulf sheikhdom at the heart of the...
Iran and the Battle for Bahrain - Brandon Friedman, World Affairs Journal
The Saudis and their neighboring Sunni Arab rulers along the Gulf littoral are now responding to what they see as the challenge of Iran as much as to last year’s events in ...
Arab Spring Shakes Arab TV's Credibility - Ali Hashem, Guardian
Twenty-two years ago my father, a Lebanese immigrant in Sierra Leone, bought a huge satellite dish with tens of channels to replace the radio that we had used to listen to the BB...
Arab Spring Is Spinning Out of Control - Zvi Mazel, Jerusalem Post
Qatar is more and more assuming the role vacated by Egypt in trying to settle local and international disputes....
Deciphering the Qatar Enigma - Patrick Seale, Gulf News
Of all the actors in the Arab Spring, one of the most effective -- and perhaps the most intriguing -- has been the state of Qatar. Situated between Saudi Arabia and Iran -- with ea...
Syrians Should Beware Autocratic 'Friends' - Brian Whitaker, Guardian
From Monday no one will be tortured in Syria. The state will guarantee personal freedom for its citizens and preserve their dignity and security. People's homes will be inviolabl...
To Avoid Proxy War, Offer Assad an Exit - Abdel Bari Atwan, The Guardian
A face-saving exit plan might be the only way to remove Assad, and prevent further polarisation of the world's superpowers....
Qatar's Muscle Flexing Shaping Mideast - Peter Goodspeed, National Post
The tiny country of Qatar used the slogan “Expect the Amazing” when it successfully bid to host soccer’s 2022 World Cup. It’s a phrase that could summarize ...
Can the Taliban Avoid a Split over Talks? - Yousafzai & Moreau, Daily Beast
Afghan insurgent leaders struggle to keep their men aboard for negotiations with the U.S....
Arab Troops in Syria? Probably a Bad Idea - Michael Young, The National
A look at previous Arab military actions does not encourage the idea that armed intervention in Syria would go smoothly....
Tiny Qatar Wielding Powerful Political Punch - Regan Doherty, Reuters
From its startling winning bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup and mediating roles in Middle East and African conflicts to its role leading Arab efforts to isolate Syria, tiny ...
Qatar Suggests Sending Arab Troops to Syria - Khaled Oweis, Reuters
Qatar has proposed sending Arab troops to halt the bloodshed in Syria, where violence has raged on despite the presence of Arab League monitors sent to check if an Arab peace plan ...
The Taliban: Opening Offices and Options - The Guardian
The success of the Afghan group's planned political office in Qatar will be measured in the number of U-turns it and the U.S. are prepared to perform....
Why Libyans Have Fallen Out of Love With Qatar - Steven Sotloff, Time
When Libya's cashed-strapped rebels needed financial support to bankroll their revolution last spring, they did not look to Western powers such as the U.S. and England for aid. I...
A 'New' Hamas in the Making? - Bilal Saab, The National Interest
Jane’s, an internationally respected British security and defense risk-analysis firm, has recently reported that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, is on “the brink of reno...
Qatar Can't Replace Saudi Arabia - Ayman Mustafa, Gulf News
Qatar's regional role is on the rise, but it has not yet taken over Saudi Arabia's role in the Gulf or the wider Middle East. Though the changes in the region are sweeping and Qa...
A New Home for Hamas? - Houriya Ahmed & Julia Pettengill, Foreign Policy
Could the hard-line Palestinian group abandon Damascus for Qatar -- and in so doing lay a foundation for a detente with Israel?...
Arab Spring Really About Sunni Revenge - Edward Luttwak, Foreign Policy
It is obvious that the Gulf monarchies of absolute rulers are not in the fight for the sake of a future Syrian democracy. For Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, the purpose of overt...
The Arab League Awakening - Rami Khouri, Globe and Mail
The Arab League didn't only make a historic decision to stop the bloodshed inside an Arab country; it also set in motion a sequential political process that directly challenges t...
Tiny Qatar Flexes Its Muscles Against Syria - Robert Fisk, The Independent
Suddenly, Qatar is acting very imperialist....
Small Gulf States Flex Their Muscle - Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, Gulf News
The net beneficiary of the shift in regional balance of power and the vacuum of leadership are the small states. Most of ‘the one inch' lost by the major league actors has ...
Qatar: Pygmy with the Punch of a Giant - The Economist
VISITORS to Qatar tend to share the same bafflement that Hosni Mubarak expressed when shown the Al Jazeera satellite channel’s news studio in the Qatari capital, Doha. “All tha...
Qatar's Diplomatic Dynamism - Tony Badran, NOW Lebanon
As far as Qatar is concerned, ambiguity may actually be desirable, allowing it to triangulate between Iran and the US. As far as Washington's interests are concerned, however, th...
Libya at Risk of Renewed Fighting - Max Boot, Contentions
Amid all the media hoopla about a new way of war supposedly being born in Libya, it is sobering to take note of some new revelations which suggest there is precious little new abou...
How Al Jazeera Furthers Qatar Agenda - Khaled Hroub, Project Syndicate
There’s a joke making the rounds in the Middle East these days: three of Egypt’s former presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar el-Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak, meet in hell and ask ...
The Strange Power of Qatar - Hugh Eakin, New York Review of Books
On August 23, Libyan rebels raised their flag over Bab al-Aziziya, the once-impregnable complex housing Muammar Qaddafi’s headquarters in Tripoli. Though the dictator himself...
Tiny Qatar's Big Plans May Upset U.S. - Meghan O'Sullivan, Bloomberg
While the domestic politics of many other countries in the Arab world are forcing the attention of their leaders inward, Qatar has marshaled its assets and has embarked on an aggre...
Will Al Jazeera Survive the Arab Spring? - Philip Seib, Foreign Affairs
The resignation last week of Wadah Khanfar as managing director of Al Jazeera has provoked speculation that scandal lurks beneath his departure. Many have pointed to a WikiLeaks ca...
Qatar's Al-Jazeera Challenge - Mohammed Oiri, Le Monde Diplomatique
Qatar’s diplomacy since 1995 seems to have run counter to Thucydides’ maxim: “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.” Qatar has de...
About Qatar
- State of Qatar
- Population: 833,285 (158th)
- Area Size: 4,473 sq mi (165th)
- GDP: $91.55 billion (69th)
- Currency: Riyal (QAR)
- Official Language: Arabic
- Capital City: Doha
- Largest City: Doha