ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has wrapped up a tour of Arab countries involved in a dispute but has failed to help bring the feuding sides closer to one another.
Erdogan arrived in Qatar on Monday on the last leg of a tour that had also taken him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
In Qatar, he met with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. Qatari state news agency QNA said the two sides discussed joint efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, reviewed defense and economic cooperation, and praised Kuwait’s mediation role in the crisis.
During the talks, Sheikh Tamim "reviewed regional developments, specifically the [Persian] Gulf crisis and efforts to contain it and to resolve it through diplomatic means,” according to the QNA.
But it was unclear how Erdogan had sought to contribute to a resolution of the dispute beyond calling on the leaders he met to try and ease the tensions. It was also improbable that he conveyed any messages from Saudi Arabia — the country leading a diplomatic and economic war on Qatar — to the leadership in Doha. Turkey has firmly taken Qatar’s side, to the displeasure of Doha’s adversaries, and is thus not looked upon as a trusted go-between.
The dispute has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar and blocking their transit routes to the country. They have accused Doha of "supporting terrorism” — a charge that the blockading countries face themselves. Qatar has denied the accusation and has said it is being targeted because of its independent foreign policies.
The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash seemed to display the Saudi-led side’s unhappiness with Ankara on Monday when he said in effect that Erdogan’s regional tour had been useless.

Moscow Ready to Mediate

Russia has expressed its readiness to help mediate, if approached, in a mounting political crisis in the Persian Gulf region between a Saudi-led quartet of Arab countries, the so-called siege states, and Qatar, as the unprecedented diplomatic rift further deepens.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks in an interview with the Kurdish television channel Rudaw, transcripts of which published on the foreign ministry's website on Monday.
"We are interested in this crisis being overcome, taking into account mutual concerns and finding solutions which will be acceptable for all participants of this process,” the Russian top diplomat further said.
A number of attempts to mend the unprecedented rift have so far turned to be futile, including those of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah, whose country has been playing the role of a key mediator since the beginning of the crisis.
"We support the mediating efforts which are being made by the emir of Kuwait ... If, as part of those efforts or in addition to them, all sides think that Russia could also do something useful, we will be ready to respond to such appeals,” Lavrov added.