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.