Qatari Emir al-Thani to visit Ankara, meet Erdoğan

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a visit to Ankara on Thursday.

Bilateral relations between Turkey and Qatar, as well as regional and international developments are expected to be discussed in the planned meeting, the presidential press office said Wednesday in a written statement.

The Qatari sheikh's visit to Turkey comes after Ankara has repeatedly tried to resolve the ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and the Gulf countries as a mediator.

The inter-Arab diplomatic crisis began on June 5, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain collectively severed diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism in the region.

Doha denies the allegations, describing the attempts to diplomatically isolate it as a violation of international law and its national sovereignty.

Kuwait has also played a central role in attempting to resolve the crisis, dispatching a number of high-level emissaries to relay messages between Qatar and the states aligned against it.

The Saudi-led bloc has presented Qatar with a list of 13 demands that it says Doha must satisfy in order for relations to return to normal.