Egypt, Qatar Resume Diplomatic Relations

Egypt and Qatar have agreed to resume diplomatic relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.

This move follows an agreement between Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt earlier this month to end their boycott of Qatar.

Qatar was boycotted in 2017 over allegations that it supported terrorism, a charge the capital, Doha, denies.

“Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Qatar exchanged, on January 20, 2021, two official memoranda, in virtue of which the two countries agreed to resume diplomatic relations,” a foreign ministry statement said.

Egypt reopened its airspace to Qatari flights on Jan. 12 and flights between the two countries were resumed.

When the boycott was announced, Egypt and its allies called on Qatar to cut ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, among other demands.

The group was outlawed in Egypt after then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the overthrow of the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi from the presidency in 2013, before being elected president himself the following year.

Much of the group’s senior leadership was jailed in Egypt but other members sought refuge abroad in Qatar or with its regional ally Turkey.

Egypt and the UAE have also found themselves at odds with Turkey and Qatar in Libya, where they have backed opposing factions in a civil conflict.

A Qatari foreign ministry official pledged to Egypt during a meeting with officials from Egypt and UAE that his country will change the policy of its al-Jazeera television channel towards Cairo.

He also pledged that Doha would not intervene in Egypt’s internal affairs.