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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