China’s $3 Billion Qatar LNG Deal Raises an Awkward Question

Qatar’s highly sensitive geographical positioning -- between a western land border with Saudi Arabia and a northeastern maritime border with Iran -- has necessitated it treading a delicate diplomatic path between regional superpowers and their global superpower backers since it gained independence from being a British protectorate in 1971. For much of the period from the 1945 landmark relationship foundation deal between Riyadh and Washington was signed, as fully analysed in my latest book on the new global oil market order, Sunni Muslim…