Doha annoyance over Riyadh’s role in Bahraini crackdown

A well-placed source in the region told GSN of an encounter in 2012 with Qatar’s then emir (now father emir) Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who revealed at a meeting that he had been close to brokering a settlement between the Al-Khalifa regime and opposition groups. According to the source, Sheikh Hamad said the deal had been scuppered by the Saudis – and he used some particularly colourful and critical language to describe the senior figures in Riyadh who had derailed his initiative.