The small Qatar emirate is really one of the richest countries in the Middle East. Doha is a world leader in the production of liquefied gas, a major exporter of oil, and the owner of the most powerful information resource of the Middle East, the Al-Jazeera television channel, as was already mentioned by Sergey Pashkov.
The first thing its neighbors did, was to stop broadcasting it. But most of the country's territory is a barren desert, and 80% of products are imported from abroad. Now the Qatari peninsula is almost completely blocked by the Saudis. They don't allow anyone to travel or fly there. But our correspondent Denis Davydov was able to do it, and here's his report from Qatar.
Even in the plane, without stepping on Qatari soil, you understand that this small country has problems with its neighbors: The Boeing is forced to make a small detour through Iran, it's forbidden to fly directly. The sky of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is closed to Qatar Airways. Doha Airport is one of the largest in the Middle East: 100,000 passengers per day, more precisely, during the better days, when states of the Persian Gulf had normal relations. Now 7 airlines have stopped flights to Qatar, and a local carrier had to cancel 40 daily flights to neighboring countries.
Many workers came here, businessmen from other countries, before I would make 5 trips, but right now only 3. Taxi driver, Jerry, is a foreigner himself, a Filipino. In Qatar, in general, there are 7 times more foreigners than indigenous people, so when diplomatic ties began to break one after another, the hired workers became nervous. Afraid that Doha will start to get rid of them. But there were no repressions or deportations. E
veryone is quietly working in their places, except for the ten ambassadors, who packed their things almost in one day. This is the diplomatic area of Doha, where there are embassies of multiple countries, there for example, is the South Korean embassy. And this is the Egyptian embassy.
A few days ago they took their flag down from the mansion. Cairo was one of the first to recall its ambassador from Qatar. Organizers of the blockade failed to leave Qatar without food and water. The capital's shops are bursting with abundance. Suppliers from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have been replaced in less than a day.
During the blockade, dairy products are brought from far away. These are boxes with fresh milk, which flew 3,000 km from Istanbul. Hundreds tons of products are brought by cargo planes from Turkey, Iran. Local people say that goods from far away are even cheaper than Saudi milk or fruits from the Emirates. We are very loyal to our Sheikh Tamim, he is doing so much for the country, we all defend and support him. Each supports him here. The inscription in Arabic reads: Glory to Tamim! This is the Emir of Qatar. His subject, 26-year-old Ahmed Al Khail pasted portraits of the ruler on all his SUVs. And many Qataris did the same.
The roads of Doha are full of cars with black and white silhouettes of the ruling monarch. Somewhere on the streets, you can hear, Roams a lonely button accordion... Using Russian songs, Ahmed is learning the language of a faraway country. In general, there is great attention and respect here towards Russia.
The attitude has not changed, even when the West tried to add to the diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf the notorious Russian hackers. We met with our Ambassador in Doha, who is following the situation on the spot. As for Russian hackers, as of today, none of the authorities nor the representatives of the public and the business leaders never mentioned anything about this topic. I had an extensive conversation with the Emir, during which, naturally, between the lines expressed hope that Russia would assist in resolving this conflict at such a difficult time.
How they live in a country that's under a boycott, we ask the women from Russian Compatriots in Doha organization. They have been here for more than 10 years and have not yet seen such a close-knit Qatar, as now during the boycott. The level of patriotism has risen quite high. There are constant posts in support of Qatar, written by foreigners who live here. There's a lot of support from the people who came to work here. The population of the small country believes in its great potential. Qatar is the largest exporter of natural gas on the planet. Its blue fuel is also bought by those who declared the boycott. And this is one of the reasons to hope that the diplomatic storm in the desert will soon pass.
