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Saudi Arabia Research Paper

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On 5 June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar. How did it started? The underlying tensions between Qatar and three of her Gulf neighbors have been visible for two decades. This is a region largely of absolute monarchs - kings or emirs - who have in common a very firm grip on politics at home, to head off any dissent which could represent a threat to their individual regime survival. But the emir of Qatar pursues a series of policies which simply don't fit into the rigid orthodoxy expected by most of the others, notably Saudi Arabia, the superpower of Sunni Islam. His unconventional foreign policy is a threat to Sunni solidarity, particularly because the emir and his ministers promote …show more content…

What are the impacts of the crisis? Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain gave Qatari citizens 14 days to leave their territory and banned their own citizens from travelling to or residing in Qatar. Egypt also cut diplomatic ties, but did not impose restrictions on its 180,000 citizens living in Qatar. Yemen, the Maldives and Libya's eastern-based government later followed suit. In addition, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt closed their airspace to Qatari aircraft, and said foreign airlines would have to seek permission for overflights to and from Qatar. Qatar is dependent on imports by land and sea for the basic needs of its population of 2.7 million, and about 40% of its food came in through the land border with Saudi Arabia. Qatar's stock market has lost about 10%, or about $15bn (£12bn), in market value since the start of the crisis, and the credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded Qatar's rating from stable to negative. However, exports of liquefied natural gas have so far not been affected, and the emirate's finance minister says Qatar has enough resources to defend its economy and currency. Additionally, recognizing the crisis, the Philippines has halted the deployment of workers to Qatar. Silvestre Bello, the Philippines' labor chief, said that Manila was taking precautions as it fears that problems such as food shortages could

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