Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir to visit Cairo next week

Two Egyptian MPs told reporters Wednesday that foreign minister of Saudi Arabia Adel Al-Jubeir will visit Cairo next week.

Mostafa Bakri, an independent MP and journalist, said there has been much preparation in recent weeks for Al-Jubeir's visit, which will be the first after a period of cold relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

"A number of Egyptian diplomats have visited Saudi Arabia and vice versa in past weeks to prepare the ground for Al-Jubeir's visit," said Bakri.

Abdel-Reheim Ali, an independent MP and journalist, also said he knew from diplomatic sources that Al-Jubeir will visit Cairo next week to prepare the ground for a successful Arab summit scheduled to be held in Amman, Jordan at the end of March.

Ali said the last few weeks saw attempts on both sides to end disagreements on a number of issues related to Syria and the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which a final Egyptian court ruling has stated are not part of a Saudi territory.

Saudi Arabia has also complained that its policies face a lot of attacks in Egyptian media.

Ali said Saudi Arabia's decision that Egypt be the guest of the Gulf country's Al-Janadriyah's National Festival for Heritage and Culture last month sent a very positive message about the relations between the two countries.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on 15 February with the Speaker of the Arab parliament Meshaal Bin Fahd El-Salami, a Saudi official.

Al-Jubeir's announced visit to Cairo comes after he made a surprise trip to Iraq on 25 February, as well as Saudi Arabia's decision to name an ambassador in Iraq, which comes after years of tension between the two countries

Source: Ahram online