What is Qatar up to?
Last summer, after contributing to the liberation of the Bulgarian nurses from Libya, French President Nicolas Sarkozy profusely thanked Qatar for its help in solving this thorny matter. According to reports in the French media, Qatar allegedly offered to pay for the compensation of the Libyan children infected with HIV (estimated at about $460 million). The involvement of Qatar in this diplomatic matter is not an exception, but rather the rule. Qatar has been popping up all over the place on the diplomatic and economic stages in the past few years. What is the tiny Gulf emirate up to? This new strategy really started after the 1995 coup where Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani unseated his father. The new ruler’s main goal was to put Qatar on the map. One of his close advisers explained to the French daily Le Figaro: “When Sheikh Hamad was traveling to Europe during his youth, he was upset that customs officers asked him where Qatar was.” With huge reserves of oil and gas, only 900,000
Last summer, after contributing to the liberation of the Bulgarian nurses from Libya, French President Nicolas Sarkozy profusely thanked Qatar for its help in solving this thorny matter. According to reports in the French media, Qatar allegedly offered to pay for the compensation of the Libyan children infected with HIV (estimated at about $460 million). The involvement of Qatar in this diplomatic matter is not an exception but rather the rule. Qatar has been popping up all over the place on the diplomatic and economic stages in the past few years. What is the tiny Gulf emirate up to? This new strategy really started after the 1995 coup where Sheik Ahmad al-Thani unseated his father. The new ruler’s main goal was to put Qatar on the map. One of his close advisers explained to the French daily Le Figaro: “When Sheik Ahmad was traveling to Europe during his youth, he was upset that customs officers asked him where Qatar was.” With huge reserves of oil and gas, only 900,000 inhabitants (o
