Erdogan plans Gulf visit to discuss dispute

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, with his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani after a joint press conference in Ankara on Friday. (AFP)

ANKARA: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar’s staunch regional ally in its dispute with neighbors, hopes to visit the Gulf soon to discuss efforts to resolve the crisis, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.
The Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ) — comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE. Bahrain and Egypt — cut ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations it funds terrorist groups and is allying with Iran. Qatar denies the accusations.
“All our efforts are focused on a solution that suits the laws of brotherly relations,” Cavusoglu told reporters after talks in Ankara with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.
Ankara and Doha insisted Ankara would keep its military base in Qatar.
“No country has the right to raise the issue of the Turkish base or the military cooperation between Qatar and Turkey as long as this cooperation respects international law,” Sheikh Mohammed told reporters.
Cavusoglu said the demands to close the base “go against the two countries’ sovereignty.”
He said: “A third country has no right to say something to Qatar or Turkey. Everyone must respect this.”
Cavusoglu added that until now, there had been “no objections” over the base, Turkey’s first military facility in the Gulf region.
Shortly after the crisis unfolded, Ankara fast-tracked the deployment of troops at the base as part of a bilateral defense deal agreed in late 2014.
Turkey now has 150 troops at the base, Hurriyet daily reported on Wednesday, up from 80 first sent after Parliament approved the deployment.
Cavusoglu also pointed to the lack of objections to the presence in Qatar of the largest American air base in the Middle East, seen as crucial to the US-led campaign against Daesh.
Qatar’s top diplomat said Doha was being subjected to an “unjust siege” imposed “without any reason.”
Sheikh Mohammed also said it would be unfair to describe US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s shuttle diplomacy as a failure, insisting that the crisis “cannot be solved in a day.”
He said Qatar would continue to work with the US and Kuwait to end the standoff.
The Qatari minister again denied accusations that his nation provided support to terror groups, accusing the ATQ of failing to provide “single evidence” against his nation.
During his trip, Tillerson signed a US-Qatari accord on combating the financing of terrorism in an effort to help ease the crisis.
Qatar’s opponents said it fell short of allaying their concerns, but Cavusoglu said it showed the Gulf state’s sincerity.
Separately, the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs wrote on his Twitter account that there will be no quick end to the row.
“We are headed for a long estrangement... we are very far from a political solution involving a change in Qatar’s course, and, in light of that, nothing will change and we have to look for a different format of relations,” Anwar Gargash said.
The State Department said on Thursday that Tillerson hoped the parties in the dispute could soon negotiate face-to-face.
“Based on his meetings, the secretary believes that getting the parties to talk directly to one another would be an important next step,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. “We hope the parties will agree to do so.”