Qatar behind 2011 coup bid: Report
Manama : Qatar was the mastermind behind the failed coup back in 2011 in Bahrain and the events that accompanied it, according to a report aired on the Bahrain Television yesterday.
“The Qatari regime has been conspiring to overthrow the regime in Bahrain by creating the chaos in 2011 and has been working in line with the Iranian ambitions for the future of the region,” the report said.
“Qatar sought chaos and destruction of Bahrain by utilising the internet and social media networking sites and the media,” the report said. In fact, the report unveiled that the “unfriendly neighbour” has been planning this years before the events of 2011 occurred.
“Qatar sparked the unrest that occurred in Bahrain in February, 2011, and provided it with financial and logistic support and media coverage. The Qatari authorities began implementing its plan since January 26, a day after protests emerged in Egypt within the so-called Arab Spring,” it was unfolded in the report. In the televised report, it was explained further on the crucial role of utilising cyber forums and social networking sites to spread chaos in the Kingdom.
Role of ‘Saheb Al Ahbar’
According to the report, an account with the name of “Saheb Al Ahbar”, created in Qatar in 2010, began calling upon Bahrainis to “rise against their rulers and sacrifice their blood for their freedom”.
The account shared posts on local forums here calling them to protest on February 14 and work together to overthrow the regime.
The investigations of the Bahrain cyber security authorities not only proved that the account was created and activated in Qatar, as the Internet Protocol (IP) address showed, but also revealed that bodies in the Qatari government have been simultaneously activated to support it.
“Qatari authorities such as the Amiri Court, Amiri Guard and Interior Ministry would be activated at the same time as Saheb Al Ahbar account and other malicious accounts are active on Bahraini political cyber forums, with the aim of spreading calls for violence and threatening the national and civil cohesion in the Kingdom,” it was shown in the report.
Even after the chaos was controlled when His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa declared the state of national security on March 15 that year, observing the activity of the account at that time showed that it was the source of other chaotic activities that took place in the following months. The account has been responsible for launching malicious calls and movements, such as the “Flooding of Manama”, “Dignity Bank” and the “Besiege of Dignity”.
These movements called for paralysing traffic in the Capital and boycotting all national banks to harm the economy, as final attempts for the success of the coup.
Media utilised
The report showed the Qatari authorities utilised Al Jazeera to fulfill the goals of its conspiracy.This was proved as the channel worked to internationalise the events through its programmes which falsified the facts, in coordination with the dissolved Al Wefaq Society and other individuals and organisations. This is reflected in the cooperation among top Qatari officials, including the Emir’s adviser and the former prime minister, with leaders of the dissolved society and other individuals who were later proved to be involved in terrorist and terror-funding activities. Leaked conversations between these individuals showed how utilising Al Jazeera to provide media exposure of the chaotic events here was used as a power-card to push on the Bahraini government, disturb the peace the Kingdom and overthrow the regime in it.
The report endorsed that what has happened in the Kingdom in 2011, resulting in the death of hundreds of innocents among civilians and security forces, wasn’t a popular uprising as promoted by Al Jazeera and other Iranian channels.
The report described it as “a plan of systematic destruction, planned, implemented and backed by Qatar through its security authorities and official bodies”.
As reported earlier, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt announced cutting all relations with Qatar back in June over the latter’s support to terrorism and spreading chaos in various countries in the region.
The UAE state television also aired several reports that included confessions of former Qatari intelligence members proving the Qatari attempts to overthrow the regime in the Emirates as well and breaking it down through chaos and terrorism.
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