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On a Tuesday morning about a month ago, US President Donald Trump reached for his phone, opened Twitter, and as he often does, took aim.

The target of his tweets that morning, not the so-called fake news media, not crooked Hillary or the Democrats,

but a tiny country in the Middle East, Qatar.

So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit paying off, President Trump tweeted.

They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Saudi Arabia and other neighbors had just accused Qatar of supporting terrorism

and they cut off diplomatic relations as well as air, sea and land links.

They've since sent Qatar a list of tough demands,

including shutting down the Al Jazeera News Network. network.

This week, Qatar rejected the demands and as the blockade and diplomatic feud continue, Qatar

is having to fly in food and supplies from more friendly neighbors.

It's a complicated situation, but as those June tweets appeared in the feeds of President

Trump's followers, many of them probably had a pretty simple question.

I'm James Fletcher, and this week on the inquiry on the BBC World Service,

we're asking, what's so special about Qatar? Part 1, the Modernizer.

My students and my Koterie friends regularly they go back out into the desert on these

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