Qatar Petroleum Goes Global as Regional Spat Persists

摘要

Ever since Saudi Arabia,the United Arab Emirates,Bahrain and Egypt imposed an economic and diplomatic blockade against Qatar in June 2017,the tiny Middle East emirate has been aggressively pursuing business and investment opportunities overseas.There are two reasons for this-Qatar needed to make up revenues lost to the blockade,and,more importantly,it wanted to project political and economic strength to its foes.Almost two years later,there are no signs of the crisis abating.The nations behind the blockade nations lodged a series of accusations against Qatar,including its generally warm ties with Iran(with which it shares the world's largest offshore gas field)and alleged ties to terrorism.They demanded closure of the Al-Jazeera television news channel,which broadcasts from Qatar,and an end to the emirate's ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.But Qatar ignored the demands and the spat-which pits Qatar against three of its fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council-continues.