President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said there are no planned meetings between him and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in an interview Sunday with Sky News Arabia, adding “as I said before, we will wait and see.”
He added that Egypt “is not seeking any kind of tense relations with any Arabian country,” as he talked about the situations in Libya, Syria and Palestine. Sisi is on a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he has accepted
Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz announced last year the “Riyadh Supplementary Agreement” that was received as a Saudi initiative for reconciliation with Qatar.
In a press release Nov. 19, 2014, Egypt welcomed the initiative, saying that “it is fully committed to this sincere call, which constitutes a major step forward in the march towards Arab solidarity.”
Relations between Qatar and Egypt have chilled since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Qatar, which supported the Muslim Brotherhood president, has been critical of the roadmap and resulting government in Egypt, and Qatari network Al Jazeera has been seen in Egypt as a mouthpiece for the Brotherhood.
On possible reconciliation efforts inside Egypt with Islamic groups, Sisi said that “he is talking generally” when saying that the Egyptians are “angry” towards any one group.
“There is no kind of conflict or argument between the government and [young people,] but if you were talking about reconciliation with other parties then I have nothing to do with that, as it’s related to the Egyptians’ acceptance of it,” Sisi said.
