Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Tuesday that there is a joint political will between Egypt and Qatar to boost economic relations, MENA reports. "Talks between President Mohamed Morsi and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim earlier in the day tackled ways of strengthening bilateral ties", Kandil said during a press conference with the Qatari premier, now visiting Cairo. "We believe that Egypt will overcome the current economic hardships," the Qatari premier said, adding that there will be economic and investment cooperation between the two countries. As for deposits and grants that were pumped into Egypt from Qatar, Bin Jassim said that Qatar had given Egypt four billion dollars as a deposit in the Central Bank of Egypt and one billion as a grant. The talks also touched on a number of topics including the Palestinian and Syrian issues, Kandil added. He voiced appreciation for Egypt's efforts for reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and its support in delivering building material into the coastal enclave. As for the Syrian issue, he urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to take the right decision for the sake of his people. He asserted that Qatar spared no efforts in eliminating a recent misunderstanding between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates after the arrest , saying that Egyptian-UAE relations are old and strong. In the past few days, United Arab Emirates rejected a request by Egypt to free 11 of its citizens held on suspicion of training Islamists in how to overthrow governments. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood last week said some of the detainees were its members and they had been wrongfully arrested. ANSAmed
