Shoukry meets Qatar's Al Thani for 1st time since 2017 boycott

Egypt stresses it is imperative to strengthen Arab actions, support relations between countries across region

Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry met with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Arab League meetings.
Ahmed Hafez, Spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said that Shoukry and Al Thani will chair the Arab League meeting in its current session.
Last week, delegations representing the two countries met in Kuwait to discuss ways to resume bilateral diplomatic relations
The Wednesday meeting was the first since the diplomatic crisis between Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country in 2017. It aimed to set the mechanisms and procedures for the future phase.
Egypt stressed that it is imperative to build on this step to strengthen Arab actions, and support relations between countries across the region. It added that this will be based on goodwill and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
On 12 January, Egypt reopened its airspace to Qatari flights after a ban of more than three years due to the diplomatic rift.
When the boycott was announced, Egypt and its allies called on Qatar to cut ties with the outlawed group, Muslim Brotherhood, among other demands.
In 2013, the Islamist group was labelled a terrorist organisation in Egypt after the 30 June Revolution that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated then President Mohamed Morsi.