Word: qatar
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...visitor is led through splendid rooms of marble and teak, thick carpets and crystal chandeliers. This is the Diwan--seat of power in the oil sheikdom of Qatar--and the guest arrives at the inner sanctum to find hushed courtiers awaiting the moment His Highness, the Emir, will favor the chamber with his presence...
Change is stealing into all the desert kingdoms of the Persian Gulf, but nowhere else has it proved as beneficial--though fraught with palace intrigue--as in tiny, thumb-shaped Qatar (pop. 500,000). Eighteen months ago, Hamad, trained at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy, was merely an heir apparent. Then he staged a bloodless coup that ended the 23-year reign of his father Sheik Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, 64, who had developed an unseemly fondness for liquor and opulent palaces. Since then, Qataris have witnessed one of the bitterest Arabian family spats in memory, involving cash...
...trouble in Qatar and the other oil sheikdoms, of course, goes far deeper. Quite apart from perennial fears about Iraq and Iran, the region faces a potentially fatal combination of declining economic growth, rising democratic opposition and mounting Islamic extremism. The gulf is the West's economic lifeline, and a serious threat to the flow of oil would jeopardize millions of jobs in industrialized countries. While Hamad's cautious reforms, like his cool handling of his family feud, have proved generally popular at home, they are eyed with nervousness and suspicion in the tradition-bound region, which includes Saudi Arabia...
...Saudi Arabia (there may be as many as four air bases in Saudi Arabia alone, but the U.S. refuses to give the exact number). A naval station in Bahrain, headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, is host to 32 ships, including a carrier deck full of warplanes. Kuwait and Qatar have each agreed to store enough armor, artillery and supplies for an entire brigade of U.S. soldiers; a similar accord with the United Arab Emirates is in the works. And finally, the U.S. is constructing a "noose" of five air bases around the region that could help stifle any provocations...
...world flocked to Rabin's funeral and mourned him as a martyr to peace. King Hussein of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the two countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel, delivered eulogies. Government ministers from Morocco and the Persian Gulf emirates of Oman and Qatar attended too, even though these Arab states have no diplomatic relations with Israel. The generous sprinkling of red-checkered kaffiyehs and flowing Arab robes among the black mourning wear of Jews gave Israelis watching the funeral on TV visual proof of how far Rabin had progressed in ending Israel's isolation...