(MENAFN) Qatar's defense minister says Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had aimed a military invasion of Qatar since the beginning of a diplomatic crisis that erupted last year when Egypt, Bahrain alongside the latte mentioned cut off diplomatic relations with Doha.
In an interview with The Washington Post on Friday, Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah said Riyadh and Abu Dhabi had "tried everything" to destabilize Qatar, but "we have diffused this intention."
"They have intentions to intervene militarily," said Attiyah.
"They tried to provoke the tribes. They used mosques against us. Then they tried to get some puppets to bring in and replace our leaders," he added.
Attiyah, who traveled to the United States last week and held talks with his US counterpart Jim Mattis, described the beginning of the crisis by the Saudi-led bloc as an "ambush" that was "miscalculated."
The Qatari defense minister said that the Saudi-led bloc had "failed" in its attempt to replace Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with a new leader.
Earlier, the Qatari former deputy prime minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, told Spanish daily ABC last October that the UAE had planned a military invasion of Qatar with thousands of US-trained mercenaries, but it failed to secure the support of Washington.
A series of leaked documents revealed in November 2017 that the UAE had a stunning detailed plot to launch an economic war on Qatar.
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