Sheikh Tamim invites Egypt's Sisi to visit Qatar

This would be the Egyptian president’s first visit to the Gulf state since the blockade was imposed in 2017.

Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani invited Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to visit Doha, the spokesman of the Egyptian Presidency announced on Tuesday.

The invitation was sent via Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani during his visit to Cairo.

In the letter, Qatar’s Amir expressed Doha’s keenness to enhance discussions between the two countries to better develop bilateral relations.

A meeting between the FM and Sisi, the Egyptian leader also said Cairo is determined to support Arab solidarity, cooperation and maintaining mutual respect.

Qatar’s FM thanked Egypt for its role in protecting Arab national security as well as its efforts and endeavours to establish security, stability and development at the regional level.

The meeting between Sheikh Mohammed and Sisi came shortly after a similar meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

According to Al Jazeera, the meeting resulted in an Egyptian-Qatari agreement to develop relations between the two states as well as ways to advance the mechanisms of Arab action in light of current regional challenges.

The two countries recently worked together to broker the Gaza ceasefire, which put an end to an 11-day Israeli bombardment of the besieged Strip.

Qatar and Egypt signed the Al-Ula Accord on January 5th this year at the 41st GCC Summit, ending a three-year long dispute between the two countries as well as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.

Egypt was part of a quartet that imposed a full land, air and sea blockade on Qatar and severed all diplomatic ties with the country in 2017, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar has vehemently denied those accusations.

Updates regarding the official re-opening of the embassy in Qatar have yet to be announced.

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