Qatar emir accuses blockade countries of wanting ‘regime change’

Qatar’s emir in an interview airing Sunday accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government with its nearly five month old political and economic embargo of the tiny Gulf state.

“They want a regime change. It’s… so obvious,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told CBS’ 60 Minutes.

“History as well tells us, teaches us they tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir. So, and they made it also so obvious in the last couple of weeks.”

The Gulf crisis erupted June 5 when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, imposing economic sanctions as it accused the emirate of supporting terrorism and of becoming too close with Shiite rival Iran.

Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens. Doha denies the charges.

“They don’t like our independence, the way how we are thinking, our vision for the region,” Sheikh Tamin said Sunday.

“We want freedom of speech for the people of the region. And they’re not happy with that. And so they think that this is a threat to them.”