The Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani said Saudi Arabia mediated a meeting in Riyadh between him and Omar Suleiman, in the presence of the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. He told Al-Jazeera channel: "The two sides discussed everything in the meeting, but did not agree on anything." Hamad denied any rift between Egypt and Qatar. He said the tension between the two countries was caused by some Egyptian officials, who follow the principle of 'either you are with me or you are against me.' He also accused some American officials of trying to exploit their failure by showing incomprehensible sensitivity towards Qatar and all its initiatives. And he expressed that he cannot identify the next steps to bring the two countries closer to each other.
He said that solving the differences between them may happen tomorrow or in ten years, and expressed his country's willingness to resolve the dispute with Egypt in the framework of Arab interest and mutual respect. In response to some reports and statements accusing Qatar of trying to denigrate Egypt and undermine its role in the Arab political arena, the Prime Minister said: "Egypt plays a big role that is necessary to play. We do not want to provoke or compete with anybody, but we have our point of view that no one can take away from us." He also denied any link between Doha and the Hezbollah cell in Egypt or the Hamas coup in Gaza. The foreign ministry declined to comment on Hamad bin Jassem's statements, but a diplomatic source said: "We hope the good relations with Qatar will return." Dr. Abdallah el-Ashaal, former Assistant Foreign Minister, said the meeting between Hamad and Suleiman is a continuation of the reconciliation efforts made by Saudi Arabia since the Riyadh summit. He said there is no rift between Egypt and Qatar, but there is tension against the background of the different visions of the two countries in regards to many files on the Arab and regional arenas. Ashaal attributed the tension in the Egyptian-Qatari relations to Cairo's excessive sensitivity towards Doha for succeeding to activate its limited tools of power and use them optimally. He said Qatar is not part of the Iranian axis in the region as many in Egypt believe, pointing out that Doha has many stances that are close to the Iranian axis, others close to the US axis, and yet others close to both axes in varying degrees.
