Qatar reveals why its prince boycotted the Arab-European summit in Egypt

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, will not participate in the summit of the European Union and the League of Arab States, which begins Sunday in Egypt.

A Qatari Foreign Ministry source told SPOTNIK that Cairo had violated the protocol by inviting the summit to attend. "Qatar has been invited to attend the summit of the Arab League and the European Union in Egypt, but we are not surprised that the government Egypt has used the invitation as a means to achieve its goal. The call from Egypt violates the international protocol in the language and language used.

He pointed out that, contrary to the invitations addressed to other Arab heads of state, the letter of Qatar was not addressed to his emir and had been sent to the Greek Embassy in Doha instead of Qatar's permanent mission to the League of Arab States.

"The message is designed to recall the summit and is not in accordance with the official invitation," said the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry. He described as "unprofessional" the conduct of Egypt in some of these appeals, but pointed out that despite this, Qatar would participate in the summit at the level of its permanent representative to the Arab League, "fully committed to common Arab activities and cooperation with EU partners ".

The first summit of the Arab League and the European Union is scheduled to take place on 24 and 25 February in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut relations with Qatar for more than a year and a half, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in the internal affairs of those countries .