Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (L) and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (R) (Photo: Reuters)
Qatar has recalled on Wednesday its ambassador in Cairo "for consultation" after Egypt's envoy to the Arab League charged that Doha supports terrorism.
Qatar's foreign ministry said on Thursday Doha withdrew its ambassador over remarks made by Adel Tarek, Egypt's envoy to the Arab League, during deliberations in a league meeting on reaching a joint Arab response to Egypt's airstrikes against IS group targets in Libya, Qatari News Agency reported.
During the meeting, Qatar criticised the unilateral Egyptian airstrikes saying Cairo failed to consult with Arab parties.
The Egyptian official in turn accused Qatar of backing terrorism after Doha, according to the Egyptian state news agency.
Egypt launched airstrikes on Monday against Islamic State group arms caches and training camps in the eastern Libyan city of Derna after the ultra-hardline Qaeda-offshoot released a video showing the beheading of 20 Coptic Christians.
The director of the Arab affairs department at the Qatari foreign ministry had said his country expressed reservations over Egypt's unilateral decision to carry out the raids, stressing the need for for "consultations between Arab states before any unilateral military action against another member state, which might probably harm unarmed civilians," according to QNA.
He said the remarks "conflate the need to combat terrorism with the brutal killing and burning of civilians."
Egypt and Qatar have been at loggerheads since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, whom Doha had staunchly supported.
Recent attempts by Saudia Arabia to mediate a reconcilition between Cairo and Doha have run into a dead end.
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