Saudi prince ridicules
Qatar as 'only 300 people and a TV station'
Courtney Trenwith, Thursday, 29 August 2013 11:09 AM
Courtney Trenwith, Thursday, 29 August 2013 11:09 AM
The Saudi prince Bandar Bin Sultan allegedly
ridiculed the kingdom’s Gulf neighbour Qatar, describing the country as “only
300 people and a television channel”.
The Wall Street Journal
(WSJ) reported unnamed sources who claimed to have overheard the comment being
made by Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, the influential former US diplomat
who is leading Saudi-US joint efforts to depose of Syrian President Bashar Al
Assad.
Both Saudi Arabia and
Qatar support toppling the Assad regime but are at odds over who should replace
it.
Saudi Arabia has been
a vocal critic of Qatar’s role in arming rebel groups in Syria, alleging the
weapons have ended up in the hands of Islamist militants.
In an attempt to
downplay Qatar’s increasing power in the region Prince Bandar said the Gulf
state "is only 300 people. And a television channel, and this is not a
country", a source familiar with the exchange told the WSJ.
The report sparked
fury on Twitter, with Qataris describing the comment as “insulting".
Qatari Foreign
Minister Khaled Al Attiyah retaliated with his own Twitter comment, saying each
Qatari was worth a country and that his nation taught children to respect and
appreciate each other.
Academics and
journalists criticized the prince’s comment as "an abuse of the State of
Qatar and its people".
