The Gulf state of Qatar has reached a significant global profile in the recents years. Once one of the poorest Gulf States, Qatar is now one of the richest countries in the region and the world’s larger exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The Qatar diplomatic crisis, which broke out 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”. It has significantly affected the movement of goods within the Middle East. In addition, several other countries broke or reduced the level of their diplomatic relations with Qatar.
The embargo, that is still in place today, 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 pulled out of OPEC, reinforcing the country’s autonomy from its Persian Gulf neighbors, and in particular Saudi Arabia.
