Qatar has recalled its ambassador to Egypt “for consultation” after a row over Cairo’s air strikes on targets of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Libya, Qatari state media said.
A foreign ministry official said Doha was recalling its envoy over a statement made by Egypt’s delegate to the Arab League Tariq Adel, according to Qatar News Agency.
Adel accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, according to Egyptian media, after Doha’s representative expressed reservations over a clause in a communique welcoming Cairo’s air strikes on ISIL targets.
The communique was released at the end of an ambassador-level Arab League meeting in the Egyptian capital.
Egypt said its F-16s bombed ISIL targets in the eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, after the armed group in Libya released a gruesome video showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were in the North African country seeking work when they were captured.
In a separate release, Qatar’s foreign ministry said Doha had expressed reservations over the raids, stressing the need for “consultations before any unilateral military action against another member state”.
It denounced the “tense” statement by Egypt’s representative to the Arab League, saying it “confuses the need to combat terrorism [with] … the brutal killing and burning of civilians”. Al Jazeera