Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan To Discuss Qatar Crisis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will speak to President Donald Trump regarding the crisis that is currently brewing in Qatar, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Tuesday. This is the first time that Erdoğan will formally reach out to Trump after four gulf countries boycotted Qatar earlier in June.

Erdoğan’s interaction with Trump could be the last resort to solving the Qatar crisis after Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed all diplomatic ties with the Arab country following the accusation that it is siding with terrorist organizations like the Islamic State group (ISIS), Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, Daily Sabah reported.

"Depriving Qatari people from food and water, travel, or worship is inhumane, non-Islamic," Erdoğan said during the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, Monday, Daily Sabah reported.

Although most of the gulf countries have shunned Qatar, Turkey continued to back the Arab nation. This sent a strong message to Saudi Arabia insinuating that Qatar is not isolated, something that the former, along with its allies, were aiming at.

Read: Why Did Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain And Egypt Boycott Qatar?

However, this also means that Turkey has to go against some of the nations with which it shares strong diplomatic relations, which could be economically damaging to the country in the long run.

“Although Turkey and Qatar's friendly ties are obvious, when the foreign direct investment to Turkey is considered, the UAE has the highest share among the countries in the region. And Turkey is standing against the UAE, which belongs to the anti-Qatar Saudi camp in the ongoing crisis,” Serhat Erkmen, Assistant Professor at Ahi Evran University and Turkish political expert, told Deutsche Welle.

Erkmen also stated that while the balance of power in the Middle East might shift from time to time, they are still incapable of solving the economic and international crisis that plagues the area, on their own. Hence, they would have to invariably depend on superpowers like the U.S. to help reach reconciliation.

“…these countries could go as far as declaring war against each other or find reconciliation in contested areas. But the reality is that none of the Middle Eastern powers are capable of overcoming the current problems on the ground. That's why they are getting help from countries of critical importance such as the United States, Russia and some European powers,” Erkmen said. Erdoğan turning to Trump to help resolve the Qatar issue is the latest example of the statement.

Read: Qatar Calls Gulf Countries' Blockade ‘Collective Punishment’

As to whether the intervention of the United States can finally move the gulf countries to lift the blacklist against Qatar is still to be seen. After the four nations had boycotted Qatar, Trump sent out a stream of tweets criticizing Qatar’s promotion of radical Islamism. He also partially took credit for presenting the much-needed eye-opener to the gulf countries so that they were able to take a step against the Arab nation.

Nevertheless, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was visiting Sydney, Australia, at the time when the gulf countries announced that they would be boycotting Qatar, urged the Gulf nations to work out their differences, stating that the decision would not help counter terrorism effectively.

"I think what we're witnessing is a growing list of disbelief in the countries for some time, and they've bubbled up to take action in order to have those differences addressed," Tillerson said, Fox News reported. "We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences."

Also, Qatari Finance Minister Ali Shareef al Emadi told CNBC, Sunday that Trump had actually praised Qatar’s efforts to combat terrorism during a recent meeting with Muslim majority nations.

"He started his speech by really praising Qatar," Emadi said. "Qatar is really an important partner and actually combating terrorism and money laundering and the war. So I think the message was very clear from the American administration that we're taking good part in this and we're working with our allies, with our partner, with our fried really to combat.”