Claim: Qatar is a sovereign state.

A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography . A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state , as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division , or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics . Regardless of the physical geography , in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in 1937 and reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1945 , a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction .   Sometimes the word countries is used to refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities , while other times it refers only to states . For example , the CIA World Factbook uses the word in its `` Country name '' field to refer to `` a wide variety of dependencies , areas of special sovereignty , uninhabited islands , and other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent states '' . -LSB- Note 1 -RSB-