While relations have appeared to warm between Qatar and Egypt, the Sisi regime continues to crackdown on the press, including Al Jazeera’s journalists.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli arrived in Doha to take part in talks and signings with his Qatari counterpart that encompass various fields, according to local Egyptian reports.

The ministries of planning, health, finance, and trade, as well as the directors of the Suez Canal Zone and the General Authority for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, are accompanying the Egyptian prime minister in a high-profile mission.

The latest visit comes following previous discussions between Qatari businesses and members of the Egyptian delegation about potential investment opportunities and plans to expand commerce.

Separately, the Egyptian government said in March 2022 that Qatar and Egypt had struck investment agreements worth a combined $5 billion in various industries.

“Since last year, there are regular visits to Doha and to Cairo and also there was
an agreement for $5 billion, $3 billion deposited in the Central Bank of Egypt
and $2 billion dollars for investment,” Egypt’s Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told Doha News in an exclusive interview at the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Forum (QEF) last year.

Qatar and Egypt’s bumpy road

Egypt joined Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to impose an illegal air, land and sea blockade on Qatar in 2017 over allegations that Doha supports terrorism – allegations that were consistently rejected by Qatar.

The embargo had a massive impact across the board, with diplomatic ties broken, imports coming to a halt and nationals of all involved countries bearing the brunt of the political crisis.

However, that all ended in January 2021, when the Al Ula Agreement was signed to restore diplomatic and trade ties between Qatar and the blockading countries.

Shortly after the summit in Saudi Arabia’s Al Ula, Qatar’s Finance Minister Ali Al Emadi attended the inauguration of the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo – a $1.3 billion investment by the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company.

Months later in June 2021, Egypt’s Sisi named Amr El Sherbiny as the country’s envoy to Doha, seen at the time as step towards rapid economic and diplomatic normalisation between the two countries.

In June 2022, Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani landed in Cairo for the first visit to Egypt since the blockade. The Gulf state’s leader met Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi – marking the most apparent and major indicator of the complete restoration of ties between the two states.

However, while relations have appeared to warm, the Sisi regime continues to crackdown on the press, including Al Jazeera’s journalists.

Last week, an Egyptian court renewed the detention of Al Jazeera journalists Hisham Abdelaziz and Bahauddin Ibrahim, extending their imprisonment to three years without being charged, Al Jazeera reported.

The development came just a day after the Qatari network called for the “immediate release” of all of its journalists who remain behind bars in Egypt. 

While Ibrahim was arrested in Alexandria in 2020, Abdelaziz was arrested in 2019 and was subjected to enforced disappearance for almost a month.

Both journalists were accused of “joining a banned group” and “spreading false information”, accusations often used by the regime in Cairo to crack down on journalists and political dissidents.

Such accusations are frequently raised against journalists and activists as Egypt continues to reign as one of the world’s worst jailer of the press.