Dubai: Qatar has rejected any involvement in the terrorist attack on a church connected to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo during Sunday morning Mass that killed and wounded scores of people, mainly women and children.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses denunciation and disapproval of tendentious claims that the State of Qatar was involved in the condemnable terrorist attack and which were made based purely on the premise that the suspect named as Mohab Moustafa paid a visit to Qatar in 2015,” a statement by the Qatari ministry said.
Ahmad Al Rumaihi, Director of the Information Office at the ministry, was reported by the Qatar News Agency (QNA) as saying that dragging the name of Qatar under any pretence “incites the feelings of brotherly peoples and does not help in deepening ties between brotherly countries.”
Al Rumaihi said that the suspect Mohab Mostafa Al Sayed Qasim arrived in Qatar on December 3 last year on an entry visit visa in accordance with Qatar’s legal procedures, like hundreds of thousands of foreigners who are allowed to enter Qatar for a visit or work.
He added that the suspect left Qatar for Cairo on December 1, 2016 following the end of his visit.
Al Rumaihi said the Qatari authorities did not receive any requests from the Egyptian security forces or the Arab and International criminal police to detain the suspect or prevent him from entering Qatar.
Qatar’s position is the rejection of terrorism under all its forms and regardless of its motives, as well as the rejection of any threat to the security of the Egyptian people, he added.
In its statement, the ministry expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack and offered its condolences to the families of the victims.
