Cairo - Qatar moved quickly to mend its troubled relationship with Egypt after it witnessed a reversal in the US administration’s stance towards Cairo during and after the crisis of the recent Gaza war.
The Egyptian presidency said in a statement that the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on Tuesday extended an invitation to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to visit Doha.
Al-Sisi received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who delivered a message to him from Sheikh Tamim.
It was noteworthy that the head of the Qatari State Security (Intelligence Service) accompanied Abdullah Al-Khulaifi, the Qatari minister who was on a regional tour, and that Al-Khulaifi's joining in Cairo did not cover the rest of the capitals of the tour that included Tripoli and Khartoum indicates that the Qatari message of preparing to open a new page carries important indications.
While the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry attended the meeting, the presence of the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Abbas Kamel, and the announcement that the visit would last for two days, beyond the stoppage within a tour of the Qatari Foreign Minister, indicate that serious security talks will take place between the two parties, and that Al-Khulaifi is tasked with finding solutions to the reservations The Egyptian organization continues to be linked to Doha with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the international organization of the Brotherhood.
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Doha’s bias towards the Brotherhood, the embrace of a number of its leaders, and the blatant interference in the internal affairs of Egypt is one of the pitfalls in which Qatar appeared less responsive than the Egyptian ambitions.
With the second call that US President Joe Biden made with President Sisi within a few days, the Qatari position changed, and Doha sensed that a major change was coming in Washington’s approach towards the Egyptian regime, and it was necessary to respond to it.
The Egyptian presidency stated in its statement that the message Sisi received from Sheikh Tamim included "expressing aspiration to enhance discussions between the two countries on ways to develop bilateral relations, as well as discuss developments in regional and international situations, and coordinate positions regarding them, in a way that serves the aspirations of the two countries."
And in the event that Sisi's visit to Doha, it will be his first to Qatar since his election as President of Egypt in 2014, confirming that he has overcome the obstacles of the past stage.
After the Al-Ula Gulf summit, Doha waited to open up to Cairo due to many considerations, including its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its supportive position to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but the Gaza war, Washington’s interest in it, confirmation of Egypt's role as one of the pillars of security in the eastern Mediterranean, US praise for its role in Libya, and indications of rapprochement between Cairo. And Ankara, made Doha bypass its traditional reservation to go on the path of reconciliation with Egypt.
On the fifth of last January, the “Al-Ula” statement was issued by the Gulf summit announcing the end of a severe crisis that broke out in mid-2017 between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, which included closing airspace and severing relations.
On the twenty-third of last February, two official delegations from Qatar and Egypt held talks in Kuwait on joint mechanisms and procedures for implementing the “Gulf Reconciliation Statement”, amid Egyptian-Qatari praise for the relations since the completion of the reconciliation.