Bahrain Mirror: King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa denied his involvement in an initiative to topple the Qatari regime in 1996, that was disclosed on Al-Jazeera Channel's program called "What's hidden is greater".

The King said on Tuesday (March 6, 2018) during a meeting with Al-Ahram delegation headed by Egypt Press Syndicate head, Abdel-Mohsen Salama, and the accompanying delegation that "Qatar's accusations that the Quartet tried to carry out a coup to cancel the initial coup are not at all true."

According to the state news report, a conversation was held about the Qatar crisis during which King Hamad stressed "Bahrain's respect for sovereignty of states and principles of good neighborliness and non-interference in the affairs of other countries. Bahrain had always called for joint action to support the Arab nation, but Qatar had adopted an inconsistent policy with the GCC. Bahrain had urged Qatar to stop interfering in its internal affairs, but Doha did not respond because of the obstinacy of its leadership and its insistence on supporting terrorism and creating a tense atmosphere between Doha on the one hand and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and other Arab countries on the other."

"In an escalation that makes the chances of resolution limited and narrow, and even not possible, Qatar insisted that there are no changes in Doha's policies and didn't back down from its positions supporting terrorism and didn't express its readiness to implement what it had already committed to through its Emir's signing on a commitment stipulating that Qatar won't harm its relations with its neighbors, support terrorism and interfere in the internal affairs of a sisterly country."

In his discussion with the Egyptian media delegation about the Qatar crisis, King Hamad wondered "why the Emir of Qatar when the crisis broke out did not go Riyadh to explain his stance. That is what the younger brother must do. In our traditions, the younger brother must go to the older brother and discuss matters.  Also, the Emir of Qatar could have asked the assistance of the Peninsula Shield to preserve security. This is one of the roles of the GCC armed forces as we have agreed. Instead, he called in forces from foreign countries," referring to the Turkish forces in Qatar.

The King further wondered "why Qatar didn't honor its pledge to respect the agreements that the Emir of Qatar signed in 2013 and the complementary agreement that he signed in 2014, which includes not targeting or harming Egypt?"

In a reference that his family used to rule Qatar before, the King said "Qataris are our relatives and friends. They were our people before the rule by Al Thani. We don't accept to see Qataris in an awkward position. The accusations that the Quartet tried to carry out a coup to cancel the initial coup are not at all true. There had been several coups before it because of the differences within the system, and in fact, we are all worried about the numerous coups in Qatar as they are a cause of instability. We hope for a stable constitutional system in Qatar because the stability of Qatar is important to all of us. If Qatar does not change its current policy which is inconsistent with that of the GCC, the current situation would continue."

Arabic Version