Agreed although I can’t quite figure out their foreign policy. They were alleged to be supporting the Islamist rebels in Mali a few years ago, and I couldn’t figure out why, as that’s not how they practice Islam at home. (This was mentioned in a news article from the time, that of course I can no longer find, and I haven’t seen it suggested elsewhere.) I know a couple of years ago, they re-established relations with Ethiopia (allowing Qatar Airways to fly there among other things). I think they had fallen out over Qatari support for Eritrea. I’m just not sure what’s in it for Qatar.
Actually I am starting to think that KSA and Kuwait are the outliers in the region (i.e. Arabian peninsula), both being more strict than Bahrain, Oman, Qatar or (most of) the UAE (Sharjah’s the exception there). Of course KSA is bigger than all of them, probably even when they’re combined.
(ETA I’m not sure about Yemen.)
