Qatar (, , or ; ' ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar ( '), is a sovereign country in Western Asia. It is on the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its only land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. A strait in the Persian Gulf separates Qatar from the nearby island country of Bahrain, as well as sharing maritime borders with the United Arab Emirates and Iran.