CAIRO, Sept 26 (Aswat Masriya) - Qatar has supported Egypt's successive governments, not just the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar's emir Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Thursday.

"We gave aid to the Egyptian government before the Muslim Brotherhood, during the military government after the step down of Hosni Mubarak," Al Thani said in an interview with CNN, "we supported the Egyptian government during Mr. Tantawi.. we supported them during Mursi, we supported them during President Adly Mansour and we still support them".

When asked about housing the Muslim Brotherhood members, Al Thani said "they were safe in Qatar as long as they did not practice politics or any ideas-- they are always welcomed in Qatar."

"They [Muslim Brotherhood] know the rules of the country that as long as you are here you cannot practice politics against any other Arab country," he added.

Qatar has asked early September seven leading members of the brotherhood to leave the country, but other members are still residing in Qatar, according to Al Thani.

Egypt has summoned Qatar's ambassador twice in January after a statement by Doha saying it was "concerned by the large number of deaths following the suppression of protests across Egypt."

"The letter of protest demanded an intervention from the Qatari side to prevent any overstepping towards Egypt," Badr Abdel Atty, Foreign Ministry Spokesman, told the state-owned news agency MENA.

Egyptian ties with Qatar have deteriorated following the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July, which was prompted by mass protests against his rule.