Egypt to summon its senior diplomat from Qatar

The Egyptian government says it will call its ambassador in Qatar back to Cairo for talks after the constitutional referendum, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Monday.

The news agency said the decision was taken in reaction to “the unacceptable Qatari intervention in Egypt’s internal affairs.”

Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy asked the Egyptian ambassador to send a message to the Qatari government, rejecting the Qatari foreign ministry’s statement, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported Monday.

Egyptian expats in Qatar are scheduled to vote on the draft constitution between January 8 and 12. Ambassador Mohamed Morsi is scheduled to return to Cairo after Egyptians living in Qatar have completed the vote in the constitutional referendum. No indication was given as to when the ambassador would return to Qatar following talks in Cairo.

On Friday, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement expressing concerns about what it described as the increasing number of victims in protests and the mounting number of deaths in Egypt. Thirteen people were reported killed on Friday as protesters continued to demonstrate against the interim government.

The statement added that labeling political movements as terrorist groups and considering protests acts of destruction and terrorism would not stop peaceful protests but only paved the way for more violence against protesters.

Egypt’s Cabinet declared the banned Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization on December 25.

The following day, Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs Ambassador Nasser Kamel summoned Qatar’s ambassador to Cairo. Kamel said that Egypt rejects the statement issued by the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the political situation in Egypt.

Relations between Egypt and Qatar were strained following the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, whose government had close relations with Qatar. Last November, Egypt gave back US$500 million of a Qatari deposit and was expected to return another $500 million at the beginning of December.

When Morsi was in power, Qatar was the lead supporter of the Egyptian government, providing aid well above that of other countries. After Morsi’s removal on July 3, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait each gave $4 billion in aid to Egypt, outstripping Qatari aid.

In September, Egypt returned $2 billion in aid from Qatar after talks to convert them into bonds failed. It was not clear whether the issue was technical or political.