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Ex-Saudi intelligence official attacks Qatar, threatens coup

February 21, 2019 at 12:04 pm

Former Director General of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, launched a fierce attack on Qatar, ruling out that things would return to normal with Doha unless it complies with Saudi demands.

The former Saudi ambassador to Washington warned Doha not to be deceived by the US presence on its territories.

Bin Sultan added in an interview with Independent Arabia that “the largest military base in the Middle East was Wheelus Air Base in Libya. When the revolution and coup broke out in Libya, one of the officers who carried out the revolution went to the US military base. The Americans then warned him of getting close to the base, so he told them that he came to inform them that that they carried out a coup against the Libyan king. The Americans responded saying that ‘this is a Libyan internal affair. The most essential thing is that no one gets close to the military base’.”

READ: What’s left of the Qatar siege?

Bin Sultan commented on that saying that “Doha is greatly deceived that the US air base is there to protect Qatar, while they do not know that it is there to serve Washington’s interests.”

He continued: “They can learn the lesson from what happened in Libya when Wheelus Air Base was the largest military base in the world, yet it did not protect the king from the coup.”

The Saudi official continued his threats by saying: “There is no guarantee for Qataris if they link this guarantee to the US base.”

Western reports previously revealed Saudi-UAE plans to carry out a military coup and overthrow the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani against the backdrop of the Gulf crisis that broke out on 5 June 2017.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt continue to cut ties with Qatar, for the second year in a row, accusing it of “supporting terrorism”, a charge Doha has repeatedly denied.