Egypt fails to persuade African countries to adopt anti-Qatar stance

Egypt has failed to persuade countries participating in the African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa, to adopt the stance of the countries that have imposed a blockade on Qatar, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.On the sidelines of the meetings prior to the 29th summit yesterday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Choukri met several African counterparts in an effort to persuade them to support Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain in their campaign against Qatar.Shukri sought to bring ministers of the blockading countries to  the opening of the African summit, but the leaders of the summit refused to accept the proposal. Only Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and a representative of the Secretary-General of the UN participated as observers.Al Jazeera correspondent pointed out that many African leaders announced in their opening remarks at the opening of the summit their support for the Kuwaiti mediation in the Gulf crisis. Al Jazeera said that there was near unanimity among the delegates on the need to resolve the crisis within the framework of the Gulf Co-operation Council.The four countries severed diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed sanctions on it on June 5, accusing it of supporting “terrorism”. The allegation has been rejected by Doha as “baseless”.After more than two weeks, the four countries gave Doha 10 days, or until Sunday night, to comply with a 13-point demand list in exchange for the end of the anti-Qatar measures.