Qatar

Qatar is a little peninsular nation in the Arabia Peninsula that has taken a beating in the last few months. Saudi Aria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Bahrain, all accuse Qatar of supporting terrorists and have thus have placed major embargoes and limited Qatar airspace. That is devastating for Qatar, which relies heavily on Qatar Airways, which has a large international presence.

Qatar is known for other things as well. It has numerous oil reserves, which has allowed it to have a huge per capita GDP. The Al Jazeera media network is based in Qatar as well.

But now, Qatar is basically isolated, because the only land border it shares is with Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia has banned all land travel to Qatar. The limited space is forcing Qatar Airways to reconfigure flights. Billions of dollars have been pulled from banks leaving the treasury with huge burdens. As Qatar is 90% foreign, it must also draw the foreigners to stay, Thus, they have granted more privileges for these residents that seem to be working for now.

They want to prevent Hezbollah from establishing further presences in the region along with the fight in Yemen, which is the center of the largest cholera epidemic in the world. To make matters worse, Qatar has restored full relations with Iran, the enemy of the Arabian nations. This move will provoke both sides even more, and countries like the U.S. and Germany are finding it increasingly difficult to mediate the situation. Ironically though, the UAE still has a greater trading relationship with Iran.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/middleeast/saudi-crown-prince-qatar/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/world/middleeast/qatar-iran-boycott-saudi-arabia.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FQatar&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=collection