Wednesday 12 February 2014

BBC News - Qatar scales back ambitions amid financial constraints

BBC News - Qatar scales back ambitions amid financial constraints:



"When Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani succeeded his father as emir of energy-rich Qatar in June, few observers knew very much about him.



A graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the 33-year-old was said to be conservative and cautious, the antithesis of the image of a flamboyant Gulf prince.



Sheikh Tamim inherited a country whose big ambitions at being a regional - even global - power were foundering.



Its support for Islamist movements in revolutionary Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria was backfiring, straining relations with Western allies and Gulf neighbours alike.



Meanwhile at home, conservatives were increasingly vocal in the criticism of what they perceived to be the wholesale importation of Western cultural and educational institutions and values."



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