Qatar - History
	Qatar was formerly dominated by the Khalifa family of Bahrain. The peninsula became part of Turkey´s Ottoman Empire in 1872, but Turkish forces evacuated Qatar at the beginning of the First World War. The United Kingdom recognized Sheikh Abdullah at-Thani as Ruler of Qatar, and in 1916 made a treaty with him, providing British protection against aggression in return for supervision of Qatar´s external affairs. A 1934 treaty extended fuller British protection to Qatar. In October 1960 Sheikh Ali at-Thani, who had been Ruler of Qatar since 1949, abdicated in favour of his son, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Thani. In 1968 the British Government announced its intention to withdraw British forces from the Persian (Arabian) Gulf area by 1971. As a result, Qatar attempted to associate itself with Babrain and Trucial Oman (now the United Arab Emirates-UAE) in a proposed federation. The fourth Middle East and North Africa economic summit was scheduled to take place in Doha on 16-18 November 1997. However, in protest at the intended presence of representatives of Israel, which was regarded by the Arab states as failing to comply with its obligations with regard to the Middle East peace process, most of Qatar´s fellow members of the Arab League and the GCC of the Gulf refused to attend. As a result of the boycott, the summit was downgraded to a conference, and was attended by representatives of only seven Arab states; a ´low-level´ Israeli delegation, led by the country´s Minister of Trade and Industry, attended, and the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, also visited the conference. Citing security considerations during the conference, in late October Qatar had banned nationals of 10 countries (among them Egypt, Lebanon, Libya and Syria) from entering Qatar during November. Qatar consistently supported Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). In August 1990, however, Qatar was among the Arab states that condemned Iraq´s forcible annexation of Kuwait. In late August it was announced that Qatar would allow the deployment of foreign forces on its territory, as part of the multinational attempt to bring about an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. US, Canadian, French and Egyptian military aircraft and personnel were subsequently deployed in Qatar. Units of the Qatari armed forces later participated in the military operation to liberate Kuwait in early 1991 Qatar resumed tentative contact with Iraq in 1993. In February 1994, following the screening on Qatari television of reports depicting the severe economic hardships in Iraq as a result of UN economic sanctions, Kuwait temporarily recalled its ambassador from Qatar in protest at the apparent rapprochement of Qatar and Iraq. In March 1995, during the first official visit to the country by a senior Iraqi official since the Gulf War, the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs met with his Qatari counterpart to discuss the furtherance of bilateral relations. At a press conference at the end of the visit, the Qatari Minister indicated Qatar´s determination to pursue a foreign policy independent from that of its GCC neighbours when he announced his country´s support for the ending of UN sanctions against Iraq. In early 1998, as the crisis deepened regarding weapons inspections in Iraq by the UN Special Commission, Qatar urged a diplomatic solution, and appealed to Iraq to comply with all UN Security Council resolutions. In February, following separate visits to Qatar by the Iraqi Minister of Justice, Shabib al-Malki, and the US Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber ath-Thani, visited Iraq, where he was received by President Saddam Hussain; he was the most senior official from the Gulf states to visit Iraq since 1990.