Erdogan to visit Saudi Arabia Kuwait, Qatar for dialogue

Bloomberg

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will try his hand at mediating the Gulf crisis with visits to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, even as his country entrenches its military presence on Qatari soil.
“Qatar’s sovereign rights must be protected,” Defense Minister Fikri Isik said on Monday ahead of Erdogan’s July 23-24 visit. “On the other hand, we are saying that primarily Saudi Arabia and all other countries should sit down at a table and solve this through peaceful dialogue. To that end, Turkey is ready to make any contribution.”
Erdogan is stepping into the mediator’s role after efforts by Kuwait’s ruler and the US secretary of state failed—and as his country builds up a military base in Qatar in defiance of the Saudi-led bloc isolating the gas-rich nation. Qatari Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid Al-Attiyah told Turkey’s TRTWorld channel in an item broadcast late Monday that the base would not be closed, as the Saudis and their three allies have demanded.
Closure of the base is one of 13 demands the bloc wants Qatar to comply with to end the diplomatic and commercial boycott they imposed on June 5. The anti-Qatar front—which includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt—also wants the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas to sever ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, cool relations with Iran and stop funding Sunni and Shiite militant groups it considers
terrorists.
Qatar has rebuffed the demands and has denied the bloc’s allegation that it funds terrorism.