Ankara, Turkey. The fallout from a supposedly fake dump of email continues as Erdogan’s Turkey comes riding to the rescue of Qatar’s embattled regime.
Turkey’s president has promised to continue supporting Qatar after Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with the emirate, accusing Doha of funding terrorist organizations. In a show of unity, Erdogan has offered to defend the emirate under any “and all circumstances.”
“We will continue to give all our support to Qatar,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an iftar with members of his Justice and Development (AK) Party in Istanbul. “Now, there are ones who are bothered because of us being together with our Qatari brothers or sending and exporting food supplies, drugs, no matter if they are in hunger or thirst, they should excuse us.”
American President Donald Trump, who initially offered to help Qatar mediate through the crisis, also attacked Doha, accusing the monarchy of sponsoring terrorism. Doha has “historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level… the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding, they have to end that funding and their extremist ideology,” Trump stated.
Erdogan has urged Saudi Arabia, as “the largest and most powerful state in the Gulf,” to reduce tensions and lift sanctions. “It is wrong to add more troubles on top of everything in the term that the Muslim world is already struggling with and add a lot of problems,” he said. “I am telling you: There won’t be any winners in the brother’s fight. You have to work for bringing brothers together. This is what we expect from the Saudis, the Custodian of the Holy Mosques in Mecca and Medina,” Erdogan added.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut diplomatic ties and traffic links with Doha Monday, after accusing Doha of sponsoring terrorism. On Thursday, they designated 59 individuals and 12 Qatari-linked entities as terrorist organizations.