Middle east is yet to be placed under seismic zone.. the earthquake is unlikely to occur here due to tectonic plate formation... but recently we had been designing the buildings for minimum seismic load (earthquake load) placing Qatar under earthquake zone 1 (higher the zone, higher is the risk of occurrence and magnitude).
sometimes i even wonder if a earthquake strikes Qatar... i fear most of the structures would be debris.... thank god it wont happen here..... still proactively we are considering Aseismic (earthquake resistant) design now...