On March 6, the Egyptian Council of Ministers declared that Egypt’s ambassador to Qatar, who was summoned to Cairo in early February, will not return to Doha at the moment, and that he is on indefinite leave. At the same time, Egyptian politicians asserted that the presence of Egyptian workers in Qatar is the only reason behind the Egyptian government not taking a decision to finalize withdrawing its ambassador as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain did, despite a strong Egyptian desire to do so.
Various political forces in Egypt asked the government to follow suit on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) decision and to formally withdraw Egypt’s ambassador from Qatar and announce the cutting of ties, after Qatar wasted all opportunities given to it and insisted on interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs and damaging Egypt’s security.
