The Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) asked the US to bomb the headquarters of Al Jazeera during the war in Afghanistan, leaked cables revealed.
Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan – referred to as MBZ – “laughingly recalled” a conversation between his father, Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, and the emir of Qatar, Hamad al-Thani.
Mr al-Thani complained Mr al-Nahyan had asked the then commander of the US Central Command General Tommy Franks to bomb the news channel, the 2003 cable released by WikiLeaks , showed.
The Crown Prince then told former State Department official, Robert Haass, that his father had replied “Do you blame him?”
After his father's death in 2004, he also attempted to pressure the Americans to put pressure on the Qataris “to rein in Al Jazeera” .
He also recommended against allowing journalists to embed with soldiers fighting in the conflicts in Afghanistan because “the prospect of televising scenes of civilian casualties was just too risky”.
The conversations took place while the US were making plans for the war in Iraq.
The majority of the cable is about MBZ’s declaration of support for the war in Iraq “with or without a second resolution”.
Encouraging Mr Haass, he said Iraqis would “come out and dance in the streets” if Saddam Hussein was toppled .
However, he also recommended immediate humanitarian assistance for the country.
The revelation demonstrates the deterioration of relations between Qatar and its Arab neighbours which led to several Arab states breaking off diplomatic relations with the tiny emirate on a peninsula off Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
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Last week, Saudi Arabia issued a list of demands to end the diplomatic freeze and partial blockade of its airspace, including the order that Qatar should shut down Al Jazeera.
The news channel, which is financed by the Qatari royal family, is unusually independent and has been a fierce critic of the policies of Qatar’s neighbours.
Many saw it as a supporter of the Arab Spring, which saw several governments topple in the region and led to the brutal civil war in Syria.
Riyadh also demanded Qatar “pay reparations and compensation for loss of life and other, financial losses caused by [its] policies in recent years” and “align itself with the other Gulf and Arab countries militarily, politically, socially and economically”.
This prompted some commentators to say Saudi Arabia was trying to make its neighbour a vassal state .
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