Transcription
[music] So, Sheikh Al Khaled Alhal, thank you so much for coming on TCTV. You're the president and the founder of uh the Qatar National Democratic Party. You've gone through a lot. There's a lot to talk about today um about the Middle East, but also about this Western Civilization and the whole world in humanity.
Uh, first I want to talk about your journey. Why in Britain? Who let you in? And obviously you because you've been fighting for freedom for democracy in Qatar. Um, you got jailed, you got tortured. There's a lot of things that happened to you, your family. You had to flee. Um, but your message of reform and progress, how's that going?
>> First of all, thank you for having me here today. So why I'm here in UK? So I arrived in UK around 2014 and uh in that time I was here just to meet my ex-wife. She was a European citizen. My aim was to travel actually to the United States of America. But uh unfortunately in that time um actually my passport got stolen with my 10 years visa to the to America and I got stuck in this country. I was trying to find it find the guy who've done it. We have a crime number from the police but do no they didn't do anything. All what they say they identified the person he is an illegal migrant previously from
>> from Iraq?
>> of course.
>> So he entered here I think 1992 or something like that but then uh the police couldn't find him they said he was outside the country and the case slipped for around one or two years and it's just I was stuck here then I had to no other option than to claim to claim asylum.
At that time, what what what was the motive for that person or whoever told that person to do it at that point? Were you already the enemy of the state?
>> In that time uh I was an enemy of state because before I came to Britain I was the leader of Qatar movement which was actively in Qatar and Egypt as well. There is a conference on TV was around 2014 as well before I came into UK. And it was uh the main focus on Al Jazeera fund and terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood actually and that was after the collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt.
I will talk about Al Jazeera in a minute because um uh my sense I was actually once on Al Jazeera. This is back in like 2017, 18, 2018 something like that. Um, at that point it was uh embraced in the UK. Everything is fine, you know, and and I knew already that there was going to be propaganda. Uh, but uh that was the first time, last time I was interviewed by them. But uh it's quite interesting someone from Iraq allegedly who came to the west in 1992. So that assume you can assume that that person will be against Saddam which could be pro more al-Qaeda type or ISIS types. But this is why the the the reach of certain states like the state of Qatar or the IRGC in Iran infects the whole region, doesn't it? There are people from Lebanon that help the IRGC. There are people uh from Qatar. There are people from sometimes Pakistan.
Um, I want to talk about that because in 2017 you organized a conference about global security. It was it was in London. You had representatives from the UK, from the US, but also from the Middle East, the what I call the Persian Gulf countries, but some in the Arab world call the Arab Gulf. But uh uh what was, if you look back at the time, the messaging coming from all these guys and you were people listening at the time, the warnings and what what were you discussing in general?
[clears throat]
>> So basically, let me come back to what you said first about Qatar and Iran and then I'll come back to the conference because it's linked.
There is one thing common between the Qatar regime and the Iranian regime which is the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Khomeini regime started based on the Muslim Brotherhood ideology and he himself Khomeini wrote it is in his own book about the Albana ideology and he referenced Albana and Qatar found in the Muslim Brotherhood power and influence to get into the people uh from the door of um uh, you know, they are they were they were trying to get the people uh from the um, let's say an an unethical manner, the Islamist door.
>> Keep them in their side because they know the Muslim Brotherhood has a large >> base of influence in the Middle East.
>> So that was the first common uh ground between and Iran. There is another thing between Qatar and Iran which is the uh the gas. So Qatar and Iran sharing the northern gas field between Qatar and Iran which is the largest in the world and you know Iran is under sanctions. They cannot sell. So Qatar helped them to sell >> on their behalf. So there was a lot of stories about how Qatar actually money laundering the Iranian money. So they helped them as well to legalize the documentation through other neighbor countries as well. So that was the second door from what lead to all what happened after that.
So if you come and ask for example uh why I did that conference because in general in that time I was very upset about the Qatar relationship with Iran.
>> Mh.
>> Uh, all the neighbors, Saudi Arabia, UAE and uh
>> Bahrain,
>> Bahrain, all the GCC countries they are affected by the Iranian regime and the way they influence the region and funding terrorism and it was something for us very unaccepted even in Qatar. So what we know about Iran from long time ago, Iran used to be a very civilized country, civilized nation and uh our people used to go there and come back during the Shah time and before that and it was a very lovely um neighbor.
>> And at the time your country was coming up and >> our countries was still a desert in that time.
>> And and UAE the same.
>> Yeah.
>> All the same. Of all the GCC countries was just a desert in that time. So what happened after that the development and the oil that came into our countries is basically shifted the country from being a poor nation to a very wealthy nations and that's what you see the development and you saw we started to have some educational system on place and until 19 uh 89 used to be a normal country, civilized country, has nothing to do with its neighbors. There's no issues. There's no problem.
>> And then here comes the two Hameds. We call them the Hamedain which is the former prime minister of Qatar and Emir of Qatar which took the power from his father in 1995. So I mentioned 1989 because in that time the influence of HBK bin Khalifa started. So basically he started to take the power gradually until he took the power from his own father. So when he took the the power in 1995 so was one of the main promises they gave to the west for example that they will be a very civilized country.
>> They will have a normal relationship for example with countries like Israel.
>> In 1996 Shimon Peres did visit Qatar. It was a shock to the region. The first Israeli president came to Qatar and they opened a trade office and then within a few years um they just turned their back uh again to the west because in that time there was two camps in Qatar. The camp of the Islamist.
>> Mhm.
>> Which represented by the cousin of the current Emir of Qatar which he used to be the minister of interior which his name Abdullah bin Khalid Al Thani. So Abdullah bin Khalid Al Thani his sister married from the former Emir of Qatar as well, the father of the current. And within his knowledge, their Qatar. I will ask you a question maybe you you would not know about it. Do do you know anything about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
>> Not much actually.
>> Yeah.
>> Do you know much?
>> Not much.
>> Not much. Do you know that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, he used to live in Qatar and he basically was hidden in the farm of the former minister of interior of Qatar and the Americans used to search for him.
>> So the shift that I I want to explain to you what happened after that visit to Shimon's visit, Al Jazeera channel as well. In 1999, no one knows about al-Qaeda. Who knows about al-Qaeda? If there is no TV, we would not know about al-Qaeda or ISIS or whatever. Qatar was actually mainstreaming Osama bin Laden messages.
>> He's broadcasting.
>> Yeah.
>> Broadcasting through Al Jazeera started 1999 to that 2000s until even 2001 they was streaming live the 9/11 attack. So
[clears throat]
>> one of the main issues that we as Qataris faced and the Americans as well faced that and propaganda machine was actually promoting those messages.
>> Yeah.
>> These messages was very dangerous to the nation and to the people and to the west. So the way they describe what's happened in 9/11, it was a victory for Islam. So they tell people whatever the Americans done to the to our people in the '90s or before that, we revenged from them and Al Jazeera was promoting those messages.
>> So you created a community >> that is actually was supportive to al-Qaeda.
>> Yeah.
>> Thinking and then it's got promoted to ISIS and then to al-Nusra and all that radical movements and of course the Muslim Brotherhood which run by them.
I I will obviously we'll focus on Muslim Brotherhood and their reach in the west. Just a couple of things. One is because you mentioned obviously since Khomeini which people see it as 1979 but actually he started it like in the '60s his movement, his ideology, Islamism as we call it in Iran and obviously then Hezbollah was created. All those things make sense because oh Shia Shia, there's always a rivalry between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Arabs because Sunni Shia. But you mentioned that there was a link that you know because Qatar wanted essentially the the aversion of the Islamic conquest. But then also basically that meant that Qatar and Muslim Brotherhood could basically be on the same side. But they're Sunni. How can Sunni extremists and the Shia side, at least at the time, see themselves as allies? Because right now technically there are problems. The ISIS guys would attack the IRGC guys on paper. Um, how did that work at the time? But but they have a big goal?
>> You need to understand first the difference between faith.
>> Yeah.
>> And ideology.
>> And ideology. There is a difference between Islam and the Islamist.
>> Yeah.
>> And the way they're promoting it.
>> So despite the difference between Shia and Sunni, for me I call it is just a normal faith differences.
>> Yeah.
>> Technical differences.
>> Yeah.
>> Technical differences belong to them to the religious people, scholars. I'm not involved with it in it and the public usually don't involve in it. The only issue you are facing in this when a political Islamist or political Islam movements start with same ideology like the Khomeini and the Muslim Brotherhood. They have things in common.
>> They take power and they practice what they what they believe.
>> It's not about what they promoted to the people. Right? The Khomeini promised people stability, promised people happiness and free, free oil.
>> Free and all of that was just sorry for.
>> Similar policies in Mandan in New York.
[laughter]
>> Yeah.
>> The same thing happened in Egypt.
>> Yes.
>> So they was promoting for the people that okay, we need to end the democracy, you know, we create a new democracy led by Sharia. Al. What they did? People voted for them and they lied to people because they used the religion as a tool. So here we talk about the main issue we are facing. The Muslim Brotherhood movement is basically focusing on a political Islam angle.
>> What they do in charity fronts for example in Europe. So the way they act it's it's very bad for the community and for the actually for the people of Britain. For example, let me take Britain as example. You cannot go and buy a church >> and convert the church to a mosque.
>> Yeah.
>> And then next day you go there and you make an adhan there, Allahu Akbar, inside the mosque. Inside the church, I mean.
>> What the community will say? What the people will say? You will create chaos. You'll create issues, you'll create hate.
>> So,
>> same with imposing halal food instead of making your own halal restaurants, which is fine, imposing it. For example, there's a number of chains like KFC or Subway that each shop is now by default becoming halal. What if the local people don't want some of the podcasts about the halal food or non-halal food? Anyway, the people the people who knows Islam and knows Muslim will understand that we are allowed to eat from Christians and Jews.
>> You're allowed.
>> We are allowed by religion.
>> So you can't eat non-halal technically speaking.
>> Brother, by religion.
>> You are allowed to eat food from Christians and Jews.
>> Why is it that they're not practicing it, these guys? Okay. The because these people making business from it.
>> The way they operate unfortunately the mosques in UK is completely different than the way it's been operated in our countries.
>> Example here, it's all about money. Donate, donate, donate, donate, donate, donate, donate, donate. The same thing happened on on the food. For example, section, the the halal food is more expensive than the normal food in in UK. It's even more expensive. But let's go back to to why it's very important for them because if they will start saying the truth that you are you are allowed to eat normal meat from UK.
>> The halal business will going to go corrupt.
>> Ah, makes sense.
>> Yeah.
>> So there is business people behind it. So who's benefiting from that? Benefiting from organizations, a lot of organizations that actually most, I'm not saying all of them, but majority of them linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood is a very wealthy organization and they are very dangerous. Listen to this. 2015, David Cameron was going to designate them as a terrorist organization. Ibrahim Munir, the leader of Muslim Brotherhood in UK went public on TV and he warned him, if you will designate us or even investigate the Muslim Brotherhood activities in UK or ideologically, it will lead to terrorism acts. It's not me saying that.
>> That's a threat.
[laughter]
>> It's a direct threat. And this exactly what they've done in Egypt when they start losing the power against the people, they start killing people in the streets. So this sort of actions, it's need more from the government.
>> Yeah.
>> Like, okay, listen to this. They don't know the Muslim Brotherhood like we know them.
>> I mean, you don't know even the language.
>> Yeah.
>> I see some politicians here start, no, it's okay. I mean, Muslim Brotherhood peaceful.
>> Yeah.
>> They're like, if the Muslim Brotherhood guy says jihad, he means peace. Like if a Muslim Brotherhood says jihad, we know what that means for them. It's not inner.
[clears throat]
>> Peace.
>> In any way. Like as I said to you, there are certain people who doesn't know the language.
>> Yeah.
>> So they even call jihad that you have to take the weapon and go kill. That's not even the jihad word's name in our. There is different meaning of this jihad, different type of jihads. So the way they are promoting it is the way that suits them. Anyway.
Um, going back to this designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in UK, you will face a lot of issues because they are actually part of the political system here. They are there.
>> They are part of the political system.
>> They are Labour, they are Conservative. So how are they?
>> I tell you how they do it. So basically the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, they they use democracy, current democracy and constitution to in and infiltrate, as they say, infiltrate the um the political system and then they put their messagings, their messagings uh into it. For example.
Um, I know of some um convicted terrorist in Egypt.
>> Mhm.
>> That moved to Canada. He's a convicted terrorist and he's now actually uh planning to be an MP and he's going there to the constitutions and talking about how peaceful it is. They are actually becoming MPs and they're becoming more powerful than before.
So wait, there are some um right-wing politicians in this country that have said this basically that, you know, the the these extremists have infiltrated the political establishment and they are getting cancelled in the UK. The Prime Minister, Kamala, and others say this is a lie and and you are basically racist. But you, as someone who's from Qatar, you're saying you're basically going even further than the the right-wing politicians in the UK what they say.
>> It's not about what they say. For me, it's a very radical from any government or any person >> to start saying stuff about people that are uh far right wing and they are uh very bad people. For example, I'm not a right wing, I'm not a left wing, I have nothing to do with that. But for example, someone like Tommy Robinson.
>> Who have a lot of love and hate at the same time in this country because some people believe he's a good person, a British nationalist, and some people think that he's a far-right uh winger.
>> But let me explain to you something very important. For example, I know Tommy personally, and I know how he's a nice person for me. I never seen him actually radical or he never insulted me. The way he talk, he talked to his own people. Um, the main issue you're facing with with uh someone like Tommy Robinson in this country is that government don't like people who has actually grassroots like have support from the normal people, the normal ordinary person. You have to understand where he comes from first because I've been to Luton.
>> Mhm.
>> Forget about Tommy.
>> Forget about Tommy.
>> Let's consider Tommy. He's a bad man. I don't care about Tommy.
>> I've been in uh in Luton and my passport got stolen in a hotel in Luton.
>> There we go.
>> That's number one. And the main reason I was I was there in that time. I was basically hiding from London. I didn't want the Qataris to know I'm in London.
>> To Luton to be safe from London.
>> And I I I didn't know nothing about Luton in that time. I don't know nothing. But I was shocked. The moment I went to Luton, u there is a lot of things happened that you'll be shocked as well about it. First of all, my passport stolen and other stuff, but >> I've seen with my own eyes. They put signs on the streets, this area ruled by Sharia law. I've seen it with my own.
>> No-go zones.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm not joking. And I was a bit shocked because I said, if they do this in my country, they are in prison for for life.
>> Yeah.
>> I mean, you cannot do that. It was I mean, even sorry, you that I'm not racist, but in my country, you cannot write a sign in Farsi for example or or Urdu or >> even English on the streets.
>> It's it's just nationalism and sometimes it could get.
>> I'm just explaining that. I'm just I don't want people to get me wrong. So I'm just explaining how things run in our country. In my country for example, a mosque cannot be run by people who you don't know what's going on, where they will going to take the money. Example, it's run by a ministry.
>> A specific ministry that rule this.
>> So there's no money going anywhere.
>> Yeah.
>> And for your information, there is a lot of imams that they have been banned in our countries if they say something outside the faith or they talk politically. I'm not talking about Qatar now, really, but in general, in Saudi Arabia, everywhere, countries they are banned and they are in prison.
>> Yes.
>> So there is worse people in here in United Kingdom they say stuff that we we cannot say it. I mean, perfect example is if you.
>> And Jim Shri for example.
>> Well, that as well. But if you take the Palestinian flight to Mecca randomly flying it, police will arrest you like why you bringing a random flight?
>> Of course.
[laughter]
>> And that's one of the main issues we face because in Qatar, we have a country that's run by Hamas ideologists, Al Jazeera. Um, I mean, the whole country, look, it's a very wealthy nation. We are one of the richest countries. You walk in the street, you see the houses of Hamas leaders, the embassy of Taliban, you see the um Osama bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's sons, they are living there freely. All the enemies of the west, they are living in the most luxury areas of Qatar. I mean, that is.
>> But okay, this makes sense because we go back to again '80s, '90s onwards and post-oil development again. Um, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and then obviously Saudi on a bigger scale, they were all desert and they were coming up and they all got rich by default. As a free market capitalist, I always say look at history. You make people rich, they become slowly educated, civilized, better. And there are problems with that, too much capitalism and liberalism, then it goes backwards because, you know, you become complacent. You've seen it in Bahrain, you've seen it in the UAE, you've seen relatively in Saudi, slowly, by default, people become more middle class. And the the authoritarian regimes have to change. They can't kick you anymore because, you know, you're educated now. Qatar also got rich. Why didn't they just focus the state on just getting rich and being normal? Why obsess with becoming a home to all the bad people?
So after the era of the Hamed bin Khalifa and Hamed bin Jassim and what he did to his own father, he locked his own father in a toilet, by the way, and his father went in exile, the previous king of Qatar. And then his son did something similar to what he did to his own father. And he had to give up the power to his son, which is the current Emir of Qatar, which we call him the boy king of Qatar. Now Tamim Al Thani, Tamim, has an issue with power. He is a psychopath.
>> And he wants people to worship him. He even explained and educated our people to come to UK and have one word, we own this country.
>> Right.
>> Self-entitled.
>> We own this country. We own UK. We own Harrods, for them, Harrods that they own all Knightsbridge. We invested more than we own more than even the king of England. They're saying that. And of course, Qatar put a lot of money into UK. But here, here is the issue. They're putting the money and they influence the system. I mean, imagine, look, once if you read about me a little bit. So once I've decided to wake up one day, Tamim was coming to London. I said, "Here we go. Let me give him a good surprise, a welcome."
So I've went, I've bought a lot of billboards from the Mailbank, from everywhere, like all taxis in London, all buses. I said, "How could you welcome a terrorist or a guy who just funded terrorism $1 billion officially?" Basically, he bought a he he paid a ran a ransom, a ransom for the Qataris who been kidnapped in Iraq. $1 billion to who? To terrorists. I said, "How you could welcome him?" So I put that in the whole streets of UK. Then another attack and some TV channels like ITV and the Qatari propaganda machine started to attack me in that time. Um, and usually I do things without mentioning it.
>> They're probably far right.
>> No.
[laughter]
>> No. So usually when I do something uh they find out later but how they find out? The Qataris, they find out by hacking, by doing a lot of stuff. For example, 2017, you asked me about the conference. The conference. How did they find out about Project Paul, for example? Have you heard about Project Paul?
>> Tell us for those who don't know yet.
>> Huh?
>> Tell tell everyone what is it.
>> Okay. So Project Paul is uh it's an idea was to change the World Cup from Qatar and I'm proud of that. I've been fighting this for years.
>> Yeah.
>> So but there was some certain stories. There's one a proposal from PR firm, $7 million. I know very well it was locked >> in my office. No one will ever enter my office. And then suddenly Al Jazeera English go and say, "Oh, and Spinwatch for example said, 'Oh, we found that document in the offices of.' How you got to my office? It's private. It was in Four Seasons Hotel. No one entering inside. How you got into my office without hacking my actual computer?
>> Right. So basically every single thing they do, it has to have an element of illegal action.
>> That's true.
>> Like hacking, like stealing, like doing a lot of stuff that is not acceptable by the British values, for example. I mean, you cannot get information that way, but they're getting away with it because they're paying the money.
But this is interesting. It feels like people are still not waking up. There have been people from UAE giving us warnings as well. This is like 10 years ago. Uh, the political rights in the west seem to be a little bit divided right now. It's a really fascinating situation. You posted this on the 9th of December. As a voice of the Qatari opposition, I'm calling out what many Americans are already questioning. Tucker Carlson who went on stage in Doha and openly joked about buying a home there. Doha is a city that hosts the Taliban's official political presence. The Hamas leaders, obviously represents a regime that is against the hostile to freedom. Even if framed as humor, joking about living among extremists and terror-linked power structures is deeply offensive to every family still mourning 3,000 lives lost on 9/11 and those who are grieving the victims of October 7th massacre. You cannot preach America First while normalizing life inside a regime that protects the enemies of the free people. So what do you think is going on with these guys?
>> Tucker Carlson is a joke. Tucker Carlson, the way he the way he put it was very funny. Even our people didn't respect him.
>> If he thought the Qataris respected him, they are actually joking and mocking him that we bought him, we own him, he would say whatever we want. So you made from yourself a joke by going to a country that that actually hosting those terrorists and you taking some photos that, oh, it's a very nice country while you are actually driving past the man, the son of a man that slaughtered 3,000 Americans >> in your own home. I mean, it's unbelievable. The the people who came there, they're taking nice photos from Lusail, from these areas. That's the areas those terrorists live. The Taliban embassy killed how many Americans? So, what's your about? What you want to say to people that it's fine what happened, happened? They killed this terrorist, still terrorist. They still kill some Americans. But you know what? We've been paid a little bit money by the Qataris, but we cannot say anything. Okay, Qatar is good. Qatar is great.
>> Do you think there's an influence of Qatari influence with people like Doug Carlson financially?
>> I mean, look, I want to say it very clearly because Aaron Mullen asked me the same question and we are investigating this, right?
>> But the right answer is, what if there were no financial interest for Tucker Carlson?
>> That makes it worse.
>> What would happen?
>> Right?
>> Do you expect the same shift?
>> So, you have to think about it like this. Every single person shifted >> on his view on so fast. I mean, it's a very radical change from American democracy to that. Exactly. To think that they are funding terrorism to, oh, it's a lovely beautiful regime. I mean, without a financial interest, nothing will going to happen.
>> Without financial interest, that means you've just gone insane, clinically insane, because there's no other explanation why you could change that quickly or that that that radically.
>> But there are others as well. There's this like trend of all these influencers going to like.
>> You want to know what my people says? Yeah.
>> So basically our people, they don't care because we know any problem, we're going to solve it with money.
>> So if someone going to open his mouth, tam, case, bottle them, you know, bottle them means put a bottle in their mouth, means cash, and they will shut up.
>> That's how the way we work in. I mean, they will not bother even to criticize, to fight back. All what they do, if you'll get the money, welcome. If you'll not take the money, we pay the money to someone else to make your life hell. Simple.
>> Well, that's fun. Well, so this is again goes back to the whole region. H the IRGC. So in your opinion, is Qatar in the pocket of the IRGC or is the IRGC in the pocket of Qatar? What, what is the relationship there now?
>> So basically, okay, I'll tell you the relationship. Who is the first country in the 19th century from 19th century until today who attacked the state of Qatar? Not Iran. Was it? No, it was Iran.
>> The first rockets came to Qatar was from Iran.
>> Wait, which just in September? Oh, I think it's my history. All right. I was going to say there is true. I've said.
>> Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. Actually, that's a very good point. Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> So what happened after that? It was a theater.
>> Of course.
>> It was a planned theater. You know why?
>> It's disgusting how my people did it. My people.
>> They were so angry on the regime because after that, a few days, they made uh the the Israelis hit the Hamas leaders in Qatar. Yes. Just maybe one month after that or a few days.
>> Embarrassing for Qatar.
>> Yeah.
>> But listen to this.
>> They made a big round table in Qatar. Who was the first person sitting in that table? The president of Iran who didn't apologize. You just apologize.
>> You just attacked my country a few months ago and you sit in the table. If it was not a theater, while you are there.
>> That's true.
>> A real Qatar.
>> You know how the Iran not about the Qataris, even the Iranians, they know themselves.
>> M.
>> You know how Iran thinks. You know people in Iran, they have dignity as well and they.
[clears throat]
>> We know how they act. But with it was a joke.
>> It's embarrassing how much of this relationship between the IRGC and Qatar go back to the rivalry with countries like Saudi in the region.
>> Again, sorry.
>> Um, how much of this relationship between the IRGC and Qatar goes towards their rivalry with Saudi Arabia?
>> Okay. So basically Qatar are currently using the Iranian regime, is not the opposite. Right?
>> Iran is in sanctions. They don't have enough resources to act. Who's helping them? Qatar. Of course, Qatar is a very wealthy country and it's just they just want to please them to use their help. So, how Qatar acts sometimes, intelligence work. Qatar using the Iranian regime to do their dirty work.
>> Mhm.
>> Iranian regime has some uh influence to Hezbollah for example and Houthis and some other terrorists around the world. Example, even some, I'm I'm sure some people here in UK >> have as well full faith and support to the Iranian regime. So the way Qatar work is basically, oh, we need to do one, two, three, four, five, and they will use the Iranian regime. The same thing Qatar using because Qatar do everything in proxy.
>> Mhm.
>> They don't do it directly. That's true. So we have a very small nation and very small country and we are run by a psychopath.
>> Yeah. You won't have enough terrorists in your own country.
>> We don't have.
>> You don't have extremists in the country to go and blow up themselves. So you have.
>> No, we have.
>> We do have.
[laughter]
>> We do have the leader of foreign extremists.
>> There.
>> Yeah.
>> In.
>> Yeah.
>> Because our locals, by the way, Qatari people, the real Qatari people, original Qatari people, they are actually anti the government. They don't support what the government do. But you don't hear our voice. Why? Because it's illegal to criticize the Emir of Qatar. It's illegal to criticize any political move from the government, any decision, it's not allowed.
>> Okay. Okay. So how can change happen in Qatar? Revolution or.
>> So basically what we doing now um majority of local Qataris which is the original Qataris, we are working in some bloodless uh, you can call it coup, but I don't call it coup, I take it taking back power in a nice way because, you know, we are not like them.
>> We are not terrorists like them.
>> So there is a constitutional ways of doing things and it will only come with pressures. That's why they rushed. Okay, let me give you a timeline.
>> Mhm.
>> So every time Qatari opposition two movement, Qatar do 10 steps ahead. They hear that we are working very heavily in America.
>> Mhm.
>> They invited all the big American politicians to come to Qatar. Not only that, they basically signed agreements. They they even convinced Trump to sign.
>> Um, sign a letter that saying we will going to protect the country, we protect if anything happens. And I said to Tamim personally, I said to him like.
>> Uh, they gave you a commitment to save Qatar, not Tamim, not the regime of Qatar, for example. So there is a way of working and I know very well that.
[clears throat]
>> Um, very soon things will in a nice way for our people. Our main focus is our people, the Qatari people. Uh, we want Qatar to be better than Monaco. A free country, free of terrorism. We don't want to interfere in Gaza issues or Iran or all this. It's not our business. All what we want is to focus on our country and make things happen within the country.
>> Final question. Do you think this radical change, whatever you want to call it, revolution or whatever change of structure, if either Iran falls first or the state of Qatar, whatever comes first, do you think it will affect the other one as well to change?
>> Of course, 100%. I mean, if Iran regime, look, Iran regime um, it's very uh powerful in a sense of control. They really put uh too much control into the people. The Qatar regime, they don't have that control. All what they have is the money and they have the law they use against their own people. So you, if you want to understand how Qatar work, go back to the uh crisis that happened in 2017. How many Qataris from royal family defected from the regime? Hundreds, thousands. How many how many uh tribes defected? Thousands.
>> Officially, not like it was on TV. The only issue we faced after that is start to hunt them one by one. So what we doing now instead of uh repeating the same mistake I've done personally in 2017 >> by exposing the people into public.
>> We would protect them, even the people from the royal family until we do few steps so to protect them. But this. You mentioned something interesting. The difference between the Islamic Republic and Iran and Qatar. The Iranian regime use extra control. Even though some of it is actually against their own constitution. So technically speaking, they do it behind closed doors. So the morality police have not been given legal powers to go and rape and torture, but they do it anyway. But the difference is, you said in in the state of Qatar, they actually have strong laws. So that's why I want to mention obviously what you went through and people like yourself in terms of torture and things like that. Is is are these things that torture sanctioned or is it still like behind closed doors?
>> No, no, it's do is done behind closed doors. And uh the thing is very simple about the tertiary state. So basically it was an article about 6,200 companies going to be bankrupt. In that time I was head of government quasi-government banking and um I've just made one statement on the newspaper, 6,200 companies going to be bankrupt. Nothing wrong with that. And what happened after that is that the current prime minister of Qatar, which he was part of the uh committee which was called Qatar, Qatar Small and Medium Enterprise.
>> Which I participated into creating that actually on Qatar.
>> So he said, "Oh, this 6,200, the number is too too big and the people will not like it and a crisis will happen." And then I did another interview. I insisted and prime minister of Qatar was very upset on it in that time. Then I've been called into the security intelligence office. That was 2010. That was the first time I've been improvised in Qatar and that was um horrible experience. I mean, the second one was worse because second one they accused me of uh of conspiracy of changing the regime.
>> Oh, that's a big one.
>> That's a big one. And it was really bad. I mean.
>> This room uh something similar to what you face but with red colors and screens and you are imagine 12, 13, 14, 18 hours your hand at the back and you're just watching and when you go to sleep, it's a room, a white room. All what you hear is drops of water with some echo. It was just torture and it was.
>> Or they put your face with water and it was crazy.
>> It's physical but also mental torture.
>> Yes.
>> And it's unacceptable. I mean, look what I've been through with the Qatar regime is too much. I mean, look.
>> Uh, all my all my kids.
[snorts]
>> Born here in UK and I was.
>> Um, like I didn't see my family for 14 years now, 14, 13 years I didn't see them. I can't see them.
>> Because actually some of them part of the regime as well and they are anti and and they do believe in the regime thinking.
>> So they don't communicate with you anymore.
>> No, because they are part of it. The same ideology, the same ideas. So they wouldn't actually touch something and as you know, for the enemy of state as they call it.
>> Yeah.
>> And uh, do you know Sheikha.
>> Yeah.
>> The mother of the king of Qatar.
>> All right.
>> Yeah.
>> Do you know that her father was the first leader of Qatari opposition?
>> When was that? That's like.
>> So she was a father.
>> From my tribe, which is from the same tribe, Muhammadi.
>> And he was actually the leader of Qatari opposition.
>> For them to make uh to make peace together.
>> To make peace together.
>> Um, the f the former king married from Sheikha.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh, and then they ended the opposition at that time.
>> And then can you believe after uh after they got the power.
>> Yeah.
>> And everything happened now the Qatari um, the king of Qatar uh, he's from two tribes basically.
>> It's it's like the days of the the war of the roses in England. But that was like 600 years ago.
>> Manchester story.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. Uh, but I'll say massive thank you. I we're going to make a promise. We're going to do two more of these interviews once constitutional monarchy is back in Iran and Qatar and democracy. One, we're going to do one into Doha, another one in Tehran and see how's everything going. Thank you very.
[laughter]
>> Much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Bless you.