One goes up, the other down
With a little help from their friends, two Gulf mini-states are ending their long dispute over a cluster of islets, reefs and and sandbanks. But at home the two are travelling in different directions. First, we report from Doha
ONCE little more than an underpopulated prong on the Arab coast of the Gulf, Qatar is being propelled into the world by a new ruler and the discovery of vast reserves of natural gas. The new emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, ejected his father from power 21 months ago. Since then, apart from having threatened to take his father to court if he did not hand back several billion missing dollars (Saudi Arabia persuaded him to drop the threat), Sheikh Hamad has promised municipal elections and perhaps a direct poll next year for his shura, or consultative council. For a Gulf state, this is lively stuff.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “One goes up, the other down”
From the March 8th 1997 edition
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