CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 86

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
The authorities of Qatar slammed the Quartet’s claims as unground-
ed and unproven, particularly the claims related to Qatar’s support of
international terrorism. 23 Interestingly, even a year later, the government
of Qatar did not accept or meet halfway with any of the Quartet’s condi-
tions. The government of Qatar, blockaded by its neighboring states, pur-
sued instead rather bold state policies during this period of political crisis,
unexpectedly showing that perhaps the steps taken against Qatar did not
have tangible consequences nor did they aff ect Qatar’s sovereignty and
widening infl uence.
Overcoming the blockade of the Arab countries
During the crisis, Qatar suff ered a loss of 43 billion dollars; howev-
er, the economy of the country did not exhibit a downturn and instead
surprisingly recorded growth. For 2018, a 2.8 per cent economic growth
is forecast instead of the average 2.3-2.5 per cent 24 of recent years. As
of 2018, the annual gas export volume of Qatar amounts to 77 million
tons. For 2022-2024, Qatar plans to increase that number up to 100 mil-
lion tons. 25 It is a fact that Qatar managed to overcome the crisis fi rst of
all with the support of Iran and Turkey. It can be stated that Qatar’s re-
lationship with Kuwait and Oman is rather stable. After the interruption
of commodity turnover with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,
the Qataris compensated the loss by an increase in goods turnover with
Iran and Turkey. It is known that since the blockade, Iran has opened up
its ports and airports to supply various types of goods to Qatar, as a result
of which Iran’s commodity turnover to Qatar increased by 117 per cent 26 ,
and trade between Turkey and Qatar increased by 30 per cent, amounting
to 1.5 billion dollars per year. 27 In fact, a number of factors helped Qatar
to overcome the blockade of the Arab countries: fi rstly, availability of 320
billion dollar reserve funds, and secondly, to a certain degree, multi-vec-
23
24
25
26
27
“What is the Qatari crisis?,” DW, October 21, 2017, https://www.dw.com/en/what-is-the-qa-
tar-crisis/a-39795408 (accessed July 8, 2018).
“Qatar’s GDP forecasts revised up for 2018,” Gulf Times, April 7, 2018, https://www.gulf-
times.com/story/588081/Qatar-s-GDP-forecasts-revised-up-for-2018 (accessed August 12,
2018).
“Qatar to boost gas production by 30% to 100 million tonnes a year,” The Peninsula, July 4,
2017, https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/04/07/2017/Qatar-to-boost-gas-production-
by-30-to-100-million-tonnes-a-year (accessed August 12, 2018).
“Sеpehr Arefmanesh, Iran Exports to Qatar Up 117%,” Financial Tribune, November 19,
2017,
https://fi nancialtribune.com/articles/economy-domestic-economy/76398/irans-eco-
nomic-ties-with-qatar-booming-exports-up-117 (accessed August 15, 2018).
“Qatar-Turkey trade grows by 30 per cent since Gulf crisis,” Middle East Monitor, January
17, 2017, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180117-qatar-turkey-trade-grows-by-30-
per-cent-since-gulf-crisis/ (accessed August 3, 2018).
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