|
 Qatar Country Profile
|
|
|
 Qatar at a Glance| Location: | Middle East, peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia | | Climate: | arid; mild, pleasant winters; very hot, humid summers | | Terrain: | mostly flat and barren desert covered with loose sand and gravel | | Resources: | petroleum, natural gas, fish | | Hazards: | haze, dust storms, sandstorms common | | Population: | 833,285 (July 2009 est.) |
A Brief Profile of QatarRuled by the al-Thani family since the mid-1800s, Qatar transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas revenues. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by the Amir, who had ruled the country since 1972. His son, the current Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani, overthrew him in a bloodless coup in 1995. In 2001, Qatar resolved its longstanding border disputes with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. As of 2007, oil and natural gas revenues had enabled Qatar to attain the second-highest per capita income in the world.
|
|
|
