The anniversary of the 5 June 2017 Qatar embargo summed up the entire situation in a nutshell. Qatari officials bizarrely claimed the country has been strengthened, while readers of Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini and Egyptian press could be forgiven for picturing Doha in the grip of an economic catastrophe.
Unsurprisingly, the reality lies between these utopian and dystopian visions, albeit closer to the Qatari version. Stabilizing the situation has come at a cost for Qatar, but with 77mn t/y LNG exports and foreign reserves of $39.8bn, it faces little pressure to give in to the “anti-terror quartet.” (CONTINUED - 706 WORDS)
