HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Foreign Minister Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah with Georgetown University president John J DeGioia in Washington on Thursday.

AFP/Washington

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said he was committed to "stability" in Egypt, despite a recent row between the two nations over Cairo's air strikes against IS militants in Libya.

Islamic State jihadists released a video this month showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, most of them Egyptian, prompting Cairo to launch air strikes on IS targets in the eastern city of Derna.

Qatar reportedly expressed reservations over the strikes, recalling its ambassador to Cairo for consultations.

But HH the Emir said on Thursday he was committed to seeing a stable Egypt.  

"My policy is to make sure that if there is anything that I can help to stabilise the situation in Egypt I will do so," the Emir said during a trip to Washington.

"Now there is a government there, we have differences with them but we all agree that this government has to be stable," he added, speaking at Georgetown University.

The Gulf Cooperation Council initially sided with Qatar in its criticism of Egypt. But the GCC later said it fully backed Egypt's air strikes in Libya.

"We had differences between Qatar and some GCC countries concerning our approach to Egypt, but what we did is when a government was elected we stood by the government," HH the Emir said.

Most Gulf Arab nations, including Qatar, have joined the US-led coalition waging air strikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where the extremists have taken over swathes of territory.

Egypt is also an ally of Washington, and a rift with Qatar and other Gulf states would complicate efforts to forge a united front against IS jihadists and its affiliates across the region.

This is HH the Emir’s first visit to the US capital, where he met with President Barack Obama.

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