The Cairo-Doha rapprochement is an exercise in how far to push

What the Arabic language press is saying about the Egypt-Qatar rapprochement, featuring Addustoor and Al Bayan.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, has adjusted the country's policies to suit the GCC line. Photo: Ashraf Shazly / AFP

Of the three parties involved in the Egypt-Qatar reconciliation, Saudi Arabia, being the sponsor, seems most optimistic. Saudi media outlets are particularly jubilant about the prospects of ending the diplomatic row between the two countries, wrote Oraib Al Rantawi in the Jordanian newspaper Addustoor.

Qatar is trying to make its U-turn as slow as possible. It is difficult for any country to go overnight from one extreme to the other, especially when the media is the means through which such a country resolves disputes with its rivals, he said.

Doha’s tactic ahead of its policy shift on Egypt has been to downplay previous disputes, blaming others for the escalation and painting the whole thing as a transient misunderstanding that has been, or is being, cleared up.

History, however, shows that the dispute between Cairo and Doha is far from being a mere misunderstanding. Instead, Qatar had banked on turning the clock back to when the Muslim Brotherhood and former president Mohammed Morsi were ascendant. To that end, they channelled state resources that included the media, cash, diplomacy and intelligence, he said.

Yet, politics is about permanent interests, not principles or friendships, he added.

“Had Doha not been on the brink of facing severe isolation from its Gulf neighbours, it would not have abandoned its bet on Egypt’s Brotherhood, and would not have moved from the trenches of enmity with Egypt’s authorities to the banks of friendship.”

Egypt, in turn, was impatiently waiting for Qatar to change its stance because it knew the most annoying attacks on the regime of new president Abdel Fattah El Sisi were coming from Doha.

A reconciliation will be bad for the Brotherhood in Egypt and Qatar. Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned broadcaster, recently suspended its Egypt-focused channel, which had been a major irritant for the Egyptian authorities.

This in turn will affect the National Alliance Supporting Legitimacy, an Egyptian Islamist group supporting Mr Morsi. In Qatar too, the rapprochement will mean Brotherhood leaders are likely to be stopped from talking politics.

But this is not enough for Egypt, which will not normalise relations unless Doha co-operates with Cairo in the war on the Muslim Brotherhood.

This includes preventing funds going to the group, extraditing suspects, expelling or daunting Brotherhood members based in Qatar, and hunting down Islamist organisations regionally.

But there will probably not be a breakthrough in Doha-Cairo relations without a similar rapprochement between Egyptian authorities and the Brotherhood. This looks highly unlikely, with Cairo unwilling to use containment instead of exclusion and the Brotherhood refusing to accepting Mr Morsi’s ousting.

Emad Aryan wrote in the UAE-based Al Bayan that it was no secret that improved Egypt-Qatar ties were expected after the recent Riyadh and Doha summits.

Shortly after the meetings, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were involved in negotiations. The writer noted that bridging the gap between Cairo and Doha was most probably the agenda’s top item.

The Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, have been crucial in improving relations. The fact that the two summits were held, showed the GCC remains vital and capable of taking decisive decisions, even it faces yet harder choices if it wants to go from security cooperation to the dream of a full union or confederation.

The GCC countries have all the ingredients – political, social, cultural, and economic – to become a true union, the writer said.

Moreover, since the Iranian revolution of 1979, the GCC countries have been unsettled by the turmoil plaguing the region, during which they have faced a number of terrorist attacks and an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. So coming together under could assuage such concerns.

The GCC’s recent initiatives are a new attempt to protect the Gulf Arabs’ security system against the threats from the wider region, he noted. The Saudi-brokered reconciliation between Cairo and Doha proves the efficiency and vitality of the GCC in settling regional issues.

Translated by Abdelhafid Ezzouitni