Egypt's Sisi to make first post-rift visit to Qatar

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is to visit Qatar on Tuesday for the first time since a four-year rift between Cairo and Doha, the royal palace announced.

The Qatari palace said on Twitter that Sisi would meet with the Gulf state's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on a visit which the official news agency QNA described as marking "a new era in relations" between the two Arab countries.

The emir visited Cairo in June, when Qatari investments in cash-strapped Egypt were on the agenda, as well as cooperation in the energy and agriculture sectors.

In late March, Cairo said Qatar planned to invest five billion dollars in Egypt, while hydrocarbon giant QatarEnergy announced an agreement with US major ExxonMobil to acquire a 40-percent stake in a gas exploration block off Egypt in the Mediterranean.

Cairo had joined Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, the UAE and Bahrain, in cutting ties with Doha in June 2017, claiming that Qatar was supporting "terrorist" groups and had secret relations with Iran.

But the four countries imposed a blockade which proved largely ineffective.

Qatar vehemently denied the charges levied against it, and accused the blockading nations of trying to impose "hegemony".

Relations were not restored until January last year, after Riyadh and Doha mended ties with the signing of the Al Ula accords.