Update – Egypt, Qatar Leaders To Meet İn January: Veteran Journalist

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani will meet in Saudi capital Riyadh early next month, a veteran Kuwaiti journalist said Monday.



"The meeting will be in January…as Egypt has set a list of demands," Ahmed Al-Jarallah, the editor-in-chief of the Kuwaiti Al-Seyassah newspaper, told The Anadolu Agency by phone.



He, however, declined to elaborate on the nature of the Egyptian demands.



Al-Jarallah said that some of the demands were related to Cairo's desire that Doha does not host some "wanted" figures from the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement from which ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi hails.



"Some Brotherhood figures, who live in Qatar, are wanted by Egyptian courts," Al-Jarallah said.



Relations between Cairo and Doha have deteriorated markedly since the ouster of Morsi, a leader of Egypt's now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement.



Egypt had accused Doha of interfering in its affairs by supporting the Brotherhood and hosting a number of wanted Brotherhood figures following Morsi's ouster.



In a September interview with CNN held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani described Morsi's ouster as a "military coup."



Cairo has been incensed by Qatar's coverage of developments in Egypt and what it describes as biased news coverage by Al Jazeera's Mubasher Misr channel.



Relations, however, began to improve between Egypt and Qatar in recent months following mediation efforts by Arab Gulf countries.



On Saturday, a special envoy dispatched by the emir of Qatar met with al-Sisi in Cairo for the first time since the latter came to power in June of this year.



On Monday, the Doha-based Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr news channel, devoted to covering news from Egypt, said that it was suspending broadcasts from the Qatari capital until "conditions are favorable" for resuming work from Egypt.



Some observers saw the channel's closure as a byproduct of the unfolding détente between Cairo and Doha.



Al-Jarallah said that the expected meeting between the Egyptian and Qatari leaders would focus on bringing relations between the two Arab countries back on track and solving their differences.



He expected Egypt's ambassador to Doha – who was recalled by Egypt months ago – to return to Qatar, even before al-Sisi's meeting with the Qatari emir.



Earlier in the day, two Egyptian political sources ruled out the possibility of holding a meeting between al-Sisi and Tamir in the coming days.



Speaking to The Anadolu Agency, the sources, however, said that the door for a possible summit meeting between the two leaders remained "ajar."



The sources, including one close to the Egyptian presidency and another close to the Foreign Ministry, said the two men had no plans to meet following al-Sisi's current visit to China.



They said Egypt wanted to be sure of Qatar's "goodwill" before a meeting was scheduled between the emir and the president.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire