Egyptian PM Arrives to Doha on Wednesday Evening

Doha , April 27 (QNA) - Egyptian Prime Minister dr. Essam abdulaziz Sharaf arrives to Doha tonight for a two-day visit to qatar , the third lef of his gulf tour which has so far included Saudi Arabia And Kuwait.
During the visit, the Egyptian Premier is to hold meetings with the Qatari officials focussing on bilateral relations in different fields, the security in the GCC, and a set of other key regional issues of common concern foremost the Palestinian issue and the latest and accelerating developments in Libya and Yemen.
The economic aspect is also expected to feature high on the Qatari-Egyptian talks since Egypt is trying to push forward the wheel of development in the coming period to compensate the great losses it sustained in the wake of the Jan.25th revolution which ousted former President Hosni Mubarak and his corrupt regime.
The Gulf States would be one of the main tributaries of the development process in the coming year through investment in the mico projects under Egypt's preparedness to encourage such investments and overcoming whatever obstalces obstructing them.
It is worthy to mention that the volume of trade between Qatar and Egypt amounted to about $ 186 million in 2008 compared to $ 122 million in 2007, while the volume of Qatari investments in Egypt totalled more than LE 1700 million through 112 companies operating in the several aspects such as real estate, tourism, telecommunications and information technology.
There has been a number of reports in Egypt that stated that some Gulf countries are lobbying against the trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the matter which top officials in the Gulf countries denied. The Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement on April 25 criticizing Egyptian Media for their inaccurate portrayal, asking them to verify their news more meticulously.
The statement said: "There are no truths to reports of outside pressure from brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or from the brotherly United Arab Emirates," adding that, "Historical relations between Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are based on Egypt's belief in its pan-Arabism and its national role of assisting in keeping the security of its brethren in the Gulf, as it is also an inseparable part of Egypt's own national security." In a pre-departure statement in Riyadh,Dr. Sharaf also said that Cairo has "historic" relations with the Arab Gulf countries, and considered interference in the GCC states' affairs "a red line to Egypt." Sharaf further said that security of the Cooperation Council for the arab states of the Gulf (GCC) member states "is part of Egypt's security."
This came in comment to question marks raised about Egyptian efforts of normalization of diplomatic relations with Iran , Sharaf ensured during his visit to Kuwait that relations with Iran can never be at the expense of the security of the GCC member states. "It will never be allowed (the normalization of relations with Iran) to threaten the security of the GCC because it is very important to us and Egyptian national security. It (GCC security) is not just a red line, but a red wall," Sharaf said.
Sharaf has been on a GCC tour where he visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he met with the custodian of the two holy mosques king abdullah bin abdulaziz al saud and held talks with foreign minister prince saudi al faisal on means of boosting ties of joint cooperation in numerous domains . Then he left riyadh for kuwait yestdeday on a two-day visit to the State of Kuwait where he handed emiro of kuwait sheikh sabah al ahmed al jaber al sabah a letter from the chairman of the supreme council of the egyptian armed forces pertaining to bilateral relations and means of bolstering them in various domains and the latest regional developments .
During his visit to Kuwait , dr. sharaf also held talks with his kuwaiti counterpart sheikh nasser al mohamed al jaber al sabah on cementing bilateral relations and enhancing aspects of joint cooperation in all domains as well as reviewing the latest arab developments and supporting arab and international endeavours made to materialize the peace in the middle east.
Then comes the State of Qatar, the third lef of his tour. Meetings with the qatari officials are also likely to focus on economy in Egypt. Foreign investment is one of the main income resources to Egypt and GCC in particular has always been valuable to Egypt.
Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf is considered the head of what is referred to as "the Revolution's Government" in Egyptian media. He was one of a 1000 University professors who marched on February 9 demanding an end to former president Mubarak's rule. Prior to public service as formerly minister of transport during Mubarak's regime and now Prime Minister, Sharaf worked as a university professor at the Cairo University Faculty of Engineering and is considered one of the most prominent transportation experts in the world.