Qatar

Qatar is a country in West Asia on the Qatar Peninsula, on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its only land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, and the Persian Gulf surrounds the rest of its territory. Its capital is Doha, home to over 80 per cent of the population, and its area is 11,581 square kilometres.

Qatar is a monarchy. The Emir, Tamim bin Hamad, holds nearly all executive, legislative and judicial power and appoints the prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, and the cabinet. It declared independence from the United Kingdom on 1 September 1971, and independence took effect on 3 September 1971.

It is a high-income economy with the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves and is one of the largest exporters of liquefied natural gas. In March 2026, according to Wikipedia, Iranian drones struck the Ras Laffan and Mesaieed industrial areas and QatarEnergy halted gas production and declared force majeure on its contracts.

It is in the news because President Donald Trump said he sees positive momentum on Iran after talks with the Qatari prime minister and called new strikes quite unlikely, in an NIS report published on 10 November 2026.

Sources: Wikipedia, Wikidata