The Gulf state of Qatar has reached a significant global profile in recent years. Once one of the poorest Gulf States, Qatar is now one of the richest countries in the region and the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The Qatar diplomatic crisis, which began in June 2017, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt boycotted trade with Qatar by imposing a “land, sea, and air blockade”, has significantly affected the movement of goods within the Middle East. In addition, several other countries withdrew their diplomatic relations.
The embargo, dismantled in 2021, came after Qatar did not comply with the other nations’ ultimatum, among which cutting all ties with Iran, with whom Qatar shared the world’s largest LNG field, and stop all trade unauthorised by U.S. sanctions.
In January 2019, as a strategic response to the embargo, Qatar left the OPEC, reinforcing the country’s autonomy from its Persian Gulf neighbors, in particular from Saudi Arabia.
In 2020, COVID-19 pandemic, the fall of the oil price and the economic difficulties encountered by its international partners, have exposed Qatar to the need to consolidate and diversify its economic model to ensure lasting sustainability.
The ease of the Gulf crisis paves the way to Qatari affirmation in the region.
