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Egypt announces paying 1 bln USD as last debt to Qatar

Xinhua, July 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced paying off 1 billion U.S. dollars as the last due debt to Qatar, official MENA news agency reported Friday.

"The CBE paid off the 1 billion dollars that Egypt issued as bonds during the time of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and they were covered by Qatar National Bank," CBE Governor Tarek Amer told the Egyptian official news agency.

The total Egyptian bonds bought by Qatar in 2013 stood at 5.5 billion dollars with interest rate varying between 3 and 4.5 percent to be biannually paid off, which Egypt completely settled over the past three years.

Relations between Egypt and Qatar deteriorated since the Egyptian military removed and detained former Islamist president Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and blacklisted his Muslim Brotherhood group as "terrorist."

Supporting Morsi and his now-outlawed group, the oil-rich Gulf state host Brotherhood members and affiliates who fled massive security crackdown at home that left hundreds killed and thousands arrested.

On the other hand, the new Egyptian administration under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted Morsi as then-military chief, accused Morsi and leading Brotherhood members of espionage by leaking classified national security documents to Qatar and its state-owned Al Jazeera TV channel.

Earlier in June, a criminal court sentenced Morsi to 40 years in jail and ordered execution for six of his loyalists over charges of spying for Qatar and Al Jazeera, yet the verdicts are appealable.

In contrast to Qatar, leading Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, welcomed Morsi's overthrow and supported Sisi's government with billions of dollars and tons of oil supplies to maintain Egypt's security and stability after the deposed Islamist president. Endit