Qatari FM in Cairo for talks amid improving ties

Cairo: Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials amid growing signs of improving ties between the two countries after strains of more than three years.

The Qatari official, who is leading a high-level delegation, will meet his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukry for talks on cooperation links between Egypt and Qatar, the Egyptian semi-official newspaper Akhbar Al Youm reported. They will also discuss the latest developments in the region including the Palestinian problem amid efforts to shore up a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers.

The two-day visit is part of an Arab region that already took the Qatari minister to Egypt’s neighbours Libya and Sudan to discuss the regional scene.

In January, Egypt and Qatar agreed to resume their diplomatic ties more than three years after severing them. The step came weeks after Egypt signed a declaration at a Gulf summit held in the Saudi city of AlUla ending a dispute between Qatar and a Saudi-led bloc including Cairo.

Last month, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and Qatar’s Emir Tamim Bin Hamad exchanged congratulations on the start of the holy month of Ramadan, marking their first joint talk since the end of the regional dispute.

The national Egyptian and Qatari airlines restarted flights between the two countries in a sign of a thaw in ties.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt had severed diplomatic and transportation links with Qatar in mid-2017.