Al-Arabiya reveals Hamad bin Khalifa’s 'struggle for power'

CAIRO – 15 November 2017: A documentary titled “The History of Qatar… the Struggle for Power” aired on Al-Arabiya, revealing former Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani’s struggle with his father Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad, Qatari emir at the time, for power and political dominance.

The three-part documentary aired from November 12 to 14.

Former officer in Qatar’s investigation department, Ali al-Dahnim, said in an interview that Hamad decided to make ministerial changes and hire individuals who hate his father Sheikh Khalifa.

"In 1986, there had been an interior secret conflict between Hamad and Sheikh Khalifa," said Dahnim. Hamad had become the de facto ruler of the country. He used to make the decisions without consulting his father, and consequently compelled him to agree with them, so as not to reveal any tensions that may exist among the ruling family.

"Hamad hired Abdullah bin Khaled, who is ‘the godfather of terrorism in Qatar,’ as the Qatari interior minister," said Dahnim.

Oubai Shahbandar, a former Pentagon analyst, said that Hamad was a megalomaniac ruler, like the Arab leaders Qaddafi, Hafez al-Asad, and Sadam Hussein. Hamad was known as the new Gamal Abdel Nasser (former Egyptian president). This was “laughable to everyone at the time,” Shahbandar said.

Leading opposition figure Khaled al-Hail said that the difference between Hamad and Khalifa was that Khalifa was concerned with Qatari interior affairs, while Hamad had an exterior agenda and was even more concerned with exterior affairs. His only problem was that his political ambitions were bigger than Qatar's resources.

Marwan Iskandar, former advisor to Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad, said that Hamad felt that he can influence the Arab world, in cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood members who “were influencing him a lot.”

Speaking about Qatari former Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim, former al-Qaeda organization member Ayman Dein said that bin Jassim was considered the "engineer" of the Qatari policy that is full of contradictions; supporting Islamist groups while establishing relations with Israel, and supporting Sunni groups while establishing relations with Iran.

"The current [Qatar] crisis is what should have happened long time ago," Sir John Jenkins, former British ambassador to Syria, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia said.

On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over accusations of sponsoring terrorist groups; an accusation which Qatar denies. “They still have a way to go, but they cannot fix their problem unless they acknowledge that they have a problem,” Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi foreign minister said earlier.