Qatar threw down the gauntlet yesterday to the four Gulf neighbours blockading the small nation, telling them it was too rich to be threatened.
Ali Sharif al-Emadi, the Qatari finance minister, told The Times that the state’s huge financial reserves, built on the sale of natural gas over decades, meant that it could withstand sanctions.
“We have sovereign wealth funds of 250 per cent of gross domestic product, we have Qatar Central Bank reserves, and we have a ministry of finance strategic reserve,” he said.
He compared his country with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt, which have closed air, land and sea routes to it, and said that its economic fundamentals were better than theirs. Although credit ratings agencies have