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Qatari FM: Saudi Arabia Supports Regime Change in Qatar

  • Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al- Thani attends a news conference in Doha, Qatar, May 25, 2017.

    Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al- Thani attends a news conference in Doha, Qatar, May 25, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 18 October 2017
Opinion

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said in a CNBC interview that Saudi Arabia supports destabilization and regime change in Qatar.

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani accused Saudi Arabia of attempting to destabilize Qatar during the four-month long blockade in an interview with CNBC.

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“We see [Saudi] government officials talking about regime change… We see a country that is bringing back the dark ages of tribes and putting them together in order to create a pressure on connected tribes in Qatar,” the foreign minister said.

Following Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt also severed ties with the Gulf nation over claims of supporting "extremism and terrorism" and warming relations with Iran, a country that the Gulf has historical hostility towards.

"It is nothing to do with stopping financing terrorism or hate speech while they are doing the same by promoting incitement against my country, promoting a regime change in my country," said al-Thani to CNBC.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE moved swiftly to supplement diplomatic pressures in the wake of the diplomatic crisis by closing their borders, notifying ports not to accept Qatari vessels, ordering their respective citizens to exit Qatar, and blockading Qatari airspace.

Diplomatic mediators between Qatar and Saudi Arabia provided a list of demands to Qatari officials which included the cessation of support for ‘terrorist organizations', a restriction on Qatar’s flagship media outlet Al-Jazeera, and an end to Qatari support for Iran.

Qatar officials called this list of demands unrealistic and hypocritical.

Human rights organizations have noted the devastation that the blockade could cause the small Gulf nation as nearly 80% of Qatar’s food supply is imported from Gulf neighbors, while only about 1% is produced locally. Reports indicated that Qataris swarmed grocery stores in fear of famine.

Turkey and Iran have pledged logistical support to Qatar and have promised to maintain Qatar’s food supply.

The U.S.' largest military base in the Middle East that is a hub for operations conducted to combat the Islamic State group, Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts nearly 11,000 U.S. and U.S.-led coalition forces and over one hundred aircraft, is located in Qatar.

Al-Thani has cited the blockade as a major impediment to the fight on terror as Qatari forces assisting U.S. forces are routinely rerouted and Qatari officials at the U.S. military headquarters in Bahrain were forced to leave their posts.

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"So there are a lot of things which undermine ... the global efforts in countering ... Daesh," al-Thani said, referring to the Islamic State group by a pejorative Arabic acronym.

U.S. President Donald Trump took credit for the diplomatic crisis believing it to be an important step in fighting extremism.

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