AP News Guide: What to know about the Qatar crisis

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, shakes hands with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani prior to their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. Turkey said it wants Qatar and its Arab neighbours to overcome differences through dialogue and a "brotherly" manner as Al Thani was in Ankara on his first foreign trip since a diplomatic crisis erupted. (Presidency Press Service, Pool via AP) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, shakes hands with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani prior to their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. Turkey said it wants Qatar and its Arab neighbours to overcome differences through dialogue and a "brotherly" manner as Al Thani was in Ankara on his first foreign trip since a diplomatic crisis erupted. (Presidency Press Service, Pool via AP)

By Associated Press September 15, 2017 4 min read

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Qatar’s ruling emir is on his first trip abroad since a diplomatic crisis erupted in June between his nation and four Arab countries.

Here’s a look at the ongoing crisis, the worst to grip the region since Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

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A COUNTRY TARGETED

Qatar is a nation about the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut which juts out like a thumb on the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. It has the highest per-capita income in the world due to its natural gas reserves, the third-largest on the planet after Russia and Iran. Just over 10 percent of its 2.2 million people are Qataris, with the rest foreign workers. Its people follow an ultraconservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism, though unlike neighboring Saudi Arabia, women can drive and foreigners can drink alcohol. Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.