CAIRO
Egypt's Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim on Sunday expected Qatar to ask more Muslim Brotherhood leaders and affiliates to leave in the future.
"I believe Qatar will ask more than just seven Muslim Brotherhood fugitives to leave," Ibrahim said in a press conference. "Coordination is underway with Interpol to chase these people who are wanted by Egyptian judicial authorities," he added.
Egypt's prosecutor-general on Saturday ordered the staff of a section of his office to address Interpol to arrest several Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members, including figures recently asked to leave Qatar, a judicial source said.
The source added that the Brotherhood leaders and members Egypt would ask Interpol to arrest were wanted pending investigations into criminal offences now being examined by courts in Egypt.
The Qatari government had asked seven Brotherhood leaders and associates to leave for another country, a Brotherhood source told Anadolu Agency late on Friday.
An Egyptian diplomatic source said later that the Qatari decision had boiled down to pressures from both the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The source added that politicians from Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states had asked Qatar to take "serious" stances against some Brotherhood leaders.
The U.S. administration, the source addedd, also put pressure on Qatar to move against the Brotherhood.
A large number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, members and affiliates had left Egypt for Qatar following last year's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.
The issue had soured relations between the Gulf state and Egypt, which had repeatedly asked the Qatari government to deport figures associated with the Brotherhood.
Egypt designated the Brotherhood a "terrorist" movement late last year, following a string of attacks in the country.
The movement, for its part, denies involvement in violence and reiterates commitment to peaceful activism.
By Islam Mosaad
www.aa.com.tr/en
