After five years of diplomatic discord, Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, welcomed Tamim Bin Hamad, the Emir of Qatar, to Cairo on 25 June 2022 – for the first time since both countries severed ties. The embargo, which began in June 2017, involved Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain against Qatar on the grounds of ‘foreign interference’ and alleged funding of Islamist ideological organizations and terrorist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah. Qatar swiftly rejected such claims, leading to diplomatic severance with the demanding countries. Rapprochement between Egypt and Qatar had already formally resumed a year prior, in 2021, but Bin Hamad’s visit to Cairo symbolically announced the beginning of a new chapter, one that puts past tensions behind – tensions that involved the Muslim Brotherhood, state-owned network Al Jazeera and its affiliates, relations with Turkey, and interference in neighboring countrys’ affairs. As the bilateral gears gradually begin to turn once more, the question is posed of what the two countries’ thawing relations potentially spell for future cooperation between them. THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD SITUATION IN QATAR Since the toppling of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated president Mohamed Morsi…
Less Muslim Brotherhood, More Cooperation: The Future of Egypt-Qatar Relations
July 23, 2022
