Bahrain Mirror: The Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said that the countries imposing the blockade on Qatar want to change the regime in his country, referring to the countries that cut off relations with Doha in June 2017.

During an interview with the American CBS News, the Emir stressed: "Yes. They want a regime change. It's... so obvious. History as well tells us, teaches us they tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir."

"Actually, what they're saying in a very simple way, 'Give up your independence,'" he added, pointing out that these countries are not happy "with freedom of speech for the people of the region... so they think that this is a threat to them." Al Thani further rejected the four states' (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain) demand to shut down Al Jazeera channel.

He also reiterated his country's commitment to find an end to this crisis that has hit the Gulf Cooperation Council states, stressing; however, that "nothing is gonna be above our dignity, our sovereignty."

"If they gonna walk one meter toward me, I'm willing to walk 10,000 miles towards them," he said.

As for his country's ties with Iran in light of the Gulf crisis, the Emir said: "We have lots of differences with Iran," but after the siege he noted, "the only way for us to provide food and medicine for our people was through Iran."

Arabic Version