Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is making a number of diplomatic phone calls in an attempt to ease a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and other Gulf countries, Presidency Spokesman İbrahim Kalın said on Monday.
At a press conference on Monday, Kalın said, “We are ready to do all we can.”
Underlining that problems between the Gulf countries and Qatar must be solved through dialogue and negotiation, Kalın said Erdoğan is in diplomatic contact with the parties in order to come up with a solution.
According to Reuters, Erdoğan talked to the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia on Monday.
“The importance of regional peace and stability was underlined in the talks, as well as the importance of focusing on the path of diplomacy and dialogue to lower the current tension,” Reuters reported on Tuesday based on information from Turkish Presidency sources.
After the talks between Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said late on Monday they called for dialogue and compromise.
Speaking at a press conference after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş also said Erdoğan, who is the term president of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has been actively involved in the process for resolution of the problem by talking on the phone with a number of heads of state from some Islamic and some Western countries.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Maldives severed their ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of supporting terrorism.
Saudi state news agency SPA said Qatar embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disrupting stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda, and constantly promotes the messages and schemes of these groups through their media.