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			 The diplomatic row came just two months after a thaw began in 
			relations between the two. 
			 
			Egyptian jets bombed sites in Libya on Monday hours after Islamic 
			State militants there released a video showing the beheading of 21 
			Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into the conflict across 
			its border. 
			 
			Qatar expressed reservations over the attack at a subsequent meeting 
			of the Arab League, angering Cairo. 
			 
			Saad bin Ali al-Muhannadi, a Qatari foreign ministry official, cited 
			misgivings on "unilateral military action in another member (state) 
			in a way that could harm innocent civilians". 
			 
			Despite Qatar's concerns, the Arab League put out a statement on 
			Wednesday expressing its "complete understanding" over Egypt's air 
			strikes and threw its weight behind Cairo's call for a lifting of 
			the arms embargo on the Libyan army. 
			 
			Qatar also expressed reservations on this point. Al-Muhannadi said 
			it would give leverage to one party over the other before peace 
			talks were concluded and a coalition government was formed. 
			
			  The Egyptian envoy to the League, Tareq Adel, blasted the moves, 
			saying it shows Qatar "supports terrorism," according to Egyptian 
			news agency MENA. 
			 
			But the Western-allied and oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council sided 
			with Qatar, suggesting it did not want to revive an internal rift 
			which peaked when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain 
			withdrew their ambassadors from Doha last year over its support for 
			Islamists. 
			 
			"These accusations are baseless, distort the truth and ignore the 
			sincere efforts Qatar has exerted with its GCC neighbors to combat 
			terrorism and extremism on all its levels," GCC head Abdullatif 
			Al-Zayani said in a statement. 
			 
			Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, accuses Qatar of 
			supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted from power in 
			2013 when the army moved against President Mohamed Mursi following 
			mass protests against his one-year rule. 
			 
			
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			Egypt in November heeded an appeal by Saudi Arabia to back an 
			agreement that ended the eight-month spat among Gulf Arab states. 
			That row was over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which 
			had been designated by several Arab countries as a terrorist 
			organization, and the promotion of Arab Spring revolts. 
			 
			Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been keen to please 
			Qatar's wealthy Gulf neighbors -- key financial and political 
			backers of his military-backed government -- and may seek to defuse 
			tensions now that the Gulf has expressed its solidarity with the 
			gas-rich kingdom. 
			 
			Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya, in an interview with the 
			pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper published on Thursday, said Doha did not 
			support the Muslim Brotherhood, adding that the rift that had 
			divided Gulf Arab nations was history. 
			 
			Attiya said that there were "differences of opinion, which is 
			healthy, and not disputes" between Gulf Arab countries. 
			 
			(This story has been refiled to restore dropped letter in 10th 
			paragraph.) 
			 
			(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Noah Browning; Writing by 
			Sami Aboudi; Editing by Kim Coghill and Crispian Balmer, Larry King) 
			
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			reserved.] 
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