Small peninsula north of Saudi Arabia. It has a land border with Saudi Arabia in the south. Fairly westernised, although not to the same extent as the UAE. Most of Qatars income comes from
Gas, it sits on the
single biggest
gas reserve in the world and has a fair amount of oil as well.
A fairly boring place, many in my
school think that you will be driven out of your mind staying there over 5 years.
The gulf is the arse hole of asia, and qatar is right up it. True? To a degree, yes.
However almost all of the country is state owned land, you can drive, camp, quad-bike you name it. Great fun.
Its very
hot as well. hottest about 55 degrees C daytime in
summer
Ruling family is the Al Thani family. Current Emir is HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani. Heir apparant HH Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al Thani. Ruler is hereditory, and if there is no heir apparant it is passed to a person from the Al Thani family designated by the emir.
Home to USAF base Al Udeid. This is home to the air element of CENTCOM, the US Central Command in the middle east.
Qatar has a military force of 11,800.
Army 8,500, Navy 1,800, Air force 1,500.
Qatar played a proportionately huge role in both gulf wars. Its fighting force is used in many
peace-keeping roles, most recently in
Lebanon being the first Arab country in the UN
peace council to commit troops to the Lebanon-Syria border.