Manama: The success of the efforts by Kuwait's Emir to contain the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) crisis with Qatar depends only on the Qatari leadership, Bahrain's foreign minister has said.

"Bahrain has long suffered from the Qatari conspiracies that included support for saboteurs and for organisations that targeted the kingdom as well as backing for distortion media campaigns," Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa told Saudi daily Al Sharq Al Awsat.

The minister said that Qatar needed to re-adjust its national policies and to distance itself from Iran, the top nemesis of the GCC states that has been conspiring against them in a hegemonic attempt to dominate them.

Shaikh Khalid, who was accompanying King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa on his trip on Wednesday to Jeddah where he held talks with King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, said that the talks between the two leaders indicated full convergence of ideas and complete coordination of stances, "especially in the current conditions where we see the clear threats emanating from the State of Qatar."

Full agreement

"There was full agreement that Qatar should change its policies, that it should re-adjust its course, that it should abide by the agreements and undertakings it had signed, that the road ahead must now be guaranteed, and that any undertaking must have safeguards, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa agreed," he said in his comments to the daily published on Thursday.

Shaikh Khalid added that there has been great prejudice from Qatar against Bahrain for the last 21 years.

"Even though we are in the same council and that our people are of the same origin and from the same tribes and from the same families, the policy of Qatar was very biased and harmed Bahrain in various ways. They supplied people who sabotaged the kingdom with money and whatever they wanted," he said.

"Even in 2011, Qatar backed the dramatic events that unfolded in Bahrain and spoke on behalf of the terrorists in the country and defended them. Such attitudes were very harmful to Bahrain."

Pan-Arab television channel Al Jazeera often harmed and abused Bahrain through broadcasting false news and conducting media campaigns aimed at smearing the reputation of the kingdom, a country that ranks high on human development indicators, he added.

"Al Jazeera showed Bahrain and Bahrainis in a bad light, while Qatar encouraged and supported international human rights organizations to focus on the Kingdom of Bahrain. There were also numerous cases of interference, and all this has to stop.

"We have suffered the most from our brothers [in Qatar], but we have been patient in reverence to our brothers in the other GCC countries," he said.

"Now that our GCC brothers are aware of this issue, we all have the same stance and we will not hesitate for a moment to clear up the atmosphere within the GCC and free it of wrong policies, thus putting an end to our suffering."

Shaikh Khalid said that in order to end the tension and strains, Qatar needed to readjust its policies and honour its past commitments and pledges.

"Qatar must also put an end to its media campaigns and to distance itself from our top nemesis, Iran. Qatar should realise that its interests are with us and not with a country that has been conspiring against us and trying to dominate us.

"Doha should also end its support for terror groups, be they Sunnis or Shiites. We and Qatar are one family and our interests are the same, so our policies should be built on such premises, and not with strangers who conspire and plot against us and who want to control our countries and our potentials," Shaikh Khalid said.

Responsibility

The minister added that Qatar would assume the responsibility should the efforts undertaken by Kuwait's Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad to mediate in the crisis fail "because Qatar would not have given the wise Kuwaiti leader the chance to succeed in bringing all parties to the same table and to work together."

"The latest pledge [by Qatar] was in Riyadh [in 2014] in the presence of King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, may God rest his soul in eternal peace, and Shaikh Sabah. Everything was clearly put in writing, but they did not honour it."