Bahrain suggests freezing Qatar’s PGCC membership Qatar emir: Blockade countries seek ‘regime change’

Bahrain’s foreign minister on Monday suggested suspending Qatar’s Persian Gulf Cooperation Council membership until it accepts the demands of its Arab adversaries in the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.

“The correct step to preserve the PGCC would be to freeze Qatar’s membership until it sees reason and accepts the demands of our countries. If not, we will be fine with it leaving the PGCC,” Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said on Twitter.

“Bahrain will not attend a summit with Qatar, which becomes closer to Iran each day,” Khalid said.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Iran, charges Doha has denied.

Founded in 1981, the PGCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait. Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could cause the six-nation bloc’s demise.

Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate.

Regime change

In an interview aired on Sunday, Qatar’s emir accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. “They want a regime change. It’s... so obvious,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told CBS’S 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.”

After severing ties with Doha, Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens.“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.”