File Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) shakes hands with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry during a meeting at the State Department in Washington, DC, US February 27, 2017 Reuters
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed developments in the Qatari crisis with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson on Monday evening.
In an official statement, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Shoukry received a phone call from Tillerson, during which each side spoke about updates in the Qatari situation, as well as relations between Egypt and the US.
The two also agreed to continued consultation and coordination on developments in the region, and to work on bolstering bilateral ties in all fields.
Tillerson’s phone call comes only hours after countries who decided to boycott Qatar -- Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt -- extended the deadline by which they insist Qatar must meet certain demands to Wednesday, at the request of mediator Kuwait.
Qatar sent its response via Kuwait on Monday, but details of the response were not made public.
Ten days ago the bloc of boycotting countries presented Qatar with a 13-point list of demands, and a deadline of the evening of 2 July to decide whether or not to comply. In them, Qatar is required to cut ties with Iran, halt support for groups such as Hezbollah and Daesh and shut down the Al Jazeera TV network.
On 5 June, the four countries severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing the gulf country of supporting Iran and terrorism, which Doha has denied.
A quartet meeting is set to be held on Wednesday between the foreign ministers of the four countries in Cairo to discuss next steps with Qatar.
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