Qatar’s Amir to visit Jordan
Qatar’s Amir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, will start a two-day visit to Jordan on Thursday for talks with King Abd Allah II.
The leaders will discuss “the mechanisms to back and develop
bilateral relations between the two countries as well as the latest developments in the region,” state-owned Jordanian news agency Petra said.
In January, Jordan and Qatar signed a number of economic cooperation agreements during a visit to Doha by Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez, including accords to prevent double taxation and to protect investments.
Diplomatic spat
The two countries were caught up in a diplomatic spat in 2002 over the broadcast of a programme about Jordan by Al-Jazeera TV.
Amman viewed the programme as offensive to the memory of its late King Hussein and ordered the closure of Al-Jazeera’s offices in the kingdom but they were reopened last year.
That incident was compounded when Qatar’s supreme court
sentenced to death in October 2002 Firas Majali, an employee of Qatari state television and son of a former Jordanian information minister, on charges of spying.
The Amir pardoned Majali in March 2003.