Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on Saturday during his first visit to Cairo since the resumption of relations between the two countries, the Egyptian presidency said.
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A ceremony broadcast live marked the arrival of the emir on Friday, welcomed on his descent from the plane by the Egyptian president.
On Saturday, it was at the presidential palace that the emir was received by Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, according to images broadcast by Egyptian television.
The two leaders discussed "
strengthening ties in the fields of energy and agriculture
" as well as "
deepening cooperation in trade and in particular regarding investment flows from Qatar to destination of Egypt
", according to a press release from the Egyptian presidency published on Saturday.
A sign of the relaxation of relations between the two countries, Qatar announced at the end of March that it was going to invest 4.5 billion euros in Egypt, while the Qatari hydrocarbon giant QatarEnergy had signed an agreement with the American ExxonMobil to acquire a "
40% stake in an exploration block off Egypt
", without specifying the amount.
Broken for three years, diplomatic relations between Cairo and the Gulf gas state only resumed in January 2021, as part of a sealed reconciliation between Qatar and four Arab countries.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain ended their relations with Qatar in June 2017, accused in particular of being too close to Iran and of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, accusations denied by Doha.
This brotherhood born in Egypt in the 1920s spread throughout the Arab world, before being banned in Egypt in the wake of the overthrow of the Islamist Mohamed Morsi by current President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
The last visit of the Emir of Qatar to Egypt dates back to 2015 during an Arab League summit and since January 2021, the two heads of state have only seen each other twice, always on the sidelines of summits in the Arab world. foreign.
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This visit to Egypt comes a few days after that of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who also visited Jordan and Turkey.
The leaders of Doha and Cairo, two great allies of the Americans in the Middle East, also mentioned the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, where they are regularly at the diplomatic maneuver.