Friday 7 May 2021

#Turkey Seeks #SaudiArabia Talks as Part of Regional Reset - Bloomberg

Turkey Seeks Saudi Arabia Talks as Part of Regional Reset - Bloomberg

Turkey is taking its outreach to the Arab world one step further with a planned visit to Saudi Arabia next week, after diplomats held two days of talks in Egypt to heal strained ties.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s visit to Saudi Arabia would be the first since the 2018 murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, according to people familiar with the matter. The visit, which is likely to take place on May 11, comes after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz discussed ways to improve relations in a phone call on Tuesday.

Turkey is seeking to reset relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ease conflicts in Libya and Syria and eliminate tensions hampering regional trade and energy exploration. The move is in line with a broader recalibration of ties in the Middle East following Joe Biden’s win in the U.S. presidential election in November.

Under Erdogan, Turkey has been a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, the pan-Islamist political movement seen by many Arab governments as a threat to the ruling order. It was unclear whether Turkey was considering curtailing its backing of the Brotherhood to appease Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

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