Thread 1/ Before #Qatar's borders with Saudi were finalised in 1999 (and to a lesser extent 1965), discussions of its borders with Saudi were a sticking point. This map from 1935 shows a number of suggested boundaries proposed by British Minister in Jeddah Sir Andrew Ryan ... 
2/ In 1937 another similar map was proposed. The final dotted red line offer made by Ryan in this map would have given Qatar a border with Abu Dhabi, which would have had an interesting effect on regional geopolitics. Many of the roughly drawn maps would have reduced the
3/ size of Saudi Arabia as it is today. The negotiation of borders became less of an issue (according to Zahlan) until the 1960s, when a unpublished agreement took place in 1965. However this lacked clarity, and led to the deaths of two people at the Qatar/Saudi border in 1992
4/ Again, a powerful example of how the British and Ibn Saud decided the fate of other Gulf nations and defined their future sovereign boundaries (and thus their geostrategic and resource potentialities).
5/ it should be added that during the 1930s Ibn Saud felt entitled to Qatar and was receiving tribute from the ruler then. It was Britsh protection that prevented Ibn Saud from likely attacking with the Ikhwan
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