Ruler of Qatar to tour 6 countries

The ruler of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaleifa al-Thani, who is also the chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, will start a plenary African tour in mid May that will cover South Africa, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Gambia, Mali and Niger.

Well-informed Qatari sources said that the ruler of Qatar will have -- during his visit to Pretoria which will last for two days -- talks with the President of South Africa Thambu Mebeki centered on coordination between the OIC presided over by Qatar and the Non- Aligned Movement countries presided over by South Africa, especially on vital issued of concern to the two sides, foremost being the cause of Palestine in light of recent developments resulted by the Israeli aggressions against the Palestinians and available potentials by both the OIC and the non-aligned movement to support the Palestinians politically and materialistically.

The sources said that the Sheikh Hamad will discuss with the President of South Africa means of revitalizing joint cooperation between the two sides in various economic and investment fields. In this regard, several bilateral agreements will be signed in the area of protecting and encouraging reciprocated investments, preventing double taxation, expanding trade volume and also in the field of oil and gas.

During his visit to the other African states, the ruler of Qatar will revitalize the Islamic solidarity and means of intensifying Arab- African dialogue as well as deepening bilateral cooperation between Qatar and these countries in various political, economic and cultural fields. On the sideline of this visit several cooperation agreements were signed.

Preparations for this tour were made in March when a high ranking official at the Qatari foreign ministry visited the capitals of the countries to be visited by Sheikh Hamad.