Qatar attempts to build its way out of a blockade

Qatar attempts to build its way out of a blockade:

"North of Qatar’s capital, the new city of Lusail is a maze of empty streets and semi-completed towers. Dozens of cranes loom over construction sites. Signs indicate directions to the sole government building operating in the area, the economy ministry.

The occasional glimpse of washing drying on a balcony is the only evidence of daily life in this waterfront city near Doha, which is planned to accommodate 200,000 people. Yet come 2022, Lusail’s 80,000-seater stadium, designed by Foster + Partners and under construction, will host the final of the football World Cup.

The city’s rapid progress from dusty desert to global centrepiece comes as the rest of Qatar faces the most serious external threat in its four-decade history, the trade and travel embargo imposed last June by four Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt — over the peninsula’s alleged support for terrorism."



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