Cairo – Egypt has started taking the necessary procedures to demand Interpol to blacklist 26 terrorists linked to Qatar, Egyptian security sources said.

It wants them to be added to Interpol’s Red Notice in order to arrest them and hand them to Egyptian authorities.

The terrorists are the same ones that were blacklisted three days ago by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt.

Former aide to the Egyptian Interior Minister Hani Abdul Latif told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Contacting Interpol will confuse the terrorists and leave them little room to maneuver.”

Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian national, who holds a Qatari passport, is among those who have been blacklisted.

Director of the Counter-Terrorism Unit in the Strategic Affairs and National Security administration Abdul Mehdi Mutawe told Asharq Al-Awsat that he believed that it would be difficult for Qaradawi to be handed over to Egypt because he holds the Qatari passport.

It is believed that dozens of extremist Egyptians have been residing in Qatar, Turkey and other countries since the ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. These figures have been inciting violence against Egyptian authorities and financing terrorist operations inside Egypt.

Abdul Latif explained that requests to Interpol are first made by the General Prosecution in Egypt and later sent to the international body.

Once it received the Red Notice, it examines it with the country that made the request. It may be distributed to all the countries that are part of the Red Notice protocol agreement.

The fact that Interpol was approached in the first place will pressure the fugitives, Abdul Latif added.

This is all aimed at revealing all terrorist plots and the countries that are backing them, he stressed.

“We have always said that terrorism is backed by international intelligence plots. I believe that this has become clear to the whole world. International intelligence fabricates terrorism and uses it to achieve its interests and goals,” he noted.