For a few seconds, the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, appeared on Monday evening live on air to deliver a speech, but the broadcast was cut off.
The speech was expected to address the move by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain, to sever relations with Doha.
The speech, which was broadcasted for few seconds only on Al-Jazeera, turned out to be from a session for the Consultative Assembly of Qatar during 2016.
Al-Arabiya channel reported the incident in a report entitled “Confusion in Qatar media.. the speech of the Emir cut off.”
Al-Arabiya said that the confusion that took place was not only on the media level, but on many other levels as well. While the Qatari channels were waiting for a speech by the Emir of Qatar, the announcer at Al-Jazeera suddenly stopped to announce the speech, but soon the speech was interrupted by a report from Al-Arabiya; the announcer then returned and apologized for the unintentional mistake.
The Emir of Qatar appeared during the few seconds segment reading from a paper, saying: “Qatar has never failed to play its role of Arab and Islamic belonging, and in defending the issues of our Arab and Islamic nations.” The broadcast then was interrupted by a report from Al-Arabiya, then the announcer of Al-Jazeera said: “This seems to be a short aspect of the speech of the Emir of the State of Qatar.”
Some Al-Arabiya followers on twitter pointed out that the speech of the Emir of Qatar dates back to the opening of the regular forty-fifth session of the Consultative Assembly of Qatar. A video on YouTube supports this claim, as it shows the exact same words of the Emir and dates back to 2016.
Al-Jazeera channel then broadcast a meeting with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in which he said that the Emir of Qatar decided to postpone a speech he was scheduled to give on Monday evening to give an opportunity to mediation efforts led by the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Qatar’s foreign minister stressed his country’s rejection of any attempt to impose guardianship over it. He said Gulf countries severing ties with Qatar was preceded by a propaganda campaign.
“The three Gulf countries cutting relations with Doha will not affect the course of normal life in Qatar,” the Qatari minister said without mentioning Egypt, which also decided to sever relations with Doha.
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti news agency said that the Emir of Kuwait made a telephone call to the Emir of Qatar. the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah called for work to support the joint Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) cooperation process to serve the interests of each of the GCC countries.
The Emir of Kuwait called for calming down the situation and not taking any further steps that would escalate it; saying we ought to allow the chance for efforts aimed at containing tensions in “brotherly relations between brothers”.
Al-Jazeera reported that the Emir of Kuwait will visit Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, in «a new step in the mediation efforts led to resolve the Gulf dispute».
Popular media host Amr Adib commented on the incident on Monday night in his program “Kol Youm” (Every Day), broadcast on ON TV Live satellite channel, saying: “We are watching the confusion, a confused country.”
After that, Adib showed what Al-Jazeera had broadcast. “The man showed for 30 seconds, and they cut him off and put a report of Al-Arabiya, not even their own (Al-Jazeera) a report. They’re confused [alright]!”
