Egypt FM: Sacking Egyptian workers in Qatar is a bad message

Egypt's Foreign Minister Amr Moussa on Tuesday threatened a "tough" answer on the continued Qatari campaign to liquidate the Egyptian labor force in Qatari establishments, a matter indicating the deterioration in relations between Cairo and Doha, especially as the Qatari measures threaten 25,000 Egyptian employees working in Qatar.

Moussa described the firing of Egyptian workers in Qatar as a "bad message" which requires "suitable" and "tough" answers. However, the Qatari ministries of the Interior and Defense and several schools have terminated contracts of their Egyptian employees during the past few months under the tension prevailing between the two countries since the recent Doha economic conference. Egypt was among many Arab nations to boycott the November, 1997 conference, in which Israel participated.

The Qatari measures mean the failure of the Saudi intervention made by King Fahd on December 3 between President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and the ruler of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Egypt's revenues from the labor forces employed outside the country is the second-largest source of Egyptian income, following tourism and before the Suez Canal.