Turkey to continue supporting Qatar amid Gulf blockade

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has said that his country will continue exporting necessary supplies to Qatar amid blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen on it.

Last month, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt had snapped its diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of financing extremist groups.

However, Qatar rejected these allegations and termed the actions by Gulf member countries of isolating it diplomatically as "unjustified".

"Perhaps the purpose of the isolation is to create a disturbance by preventing Qatar from meeting its needs within the country. Turkey has not allowed this," Anadolu quoted Zeybekci as saying during a press conference alongside Qatar's visiting economy and commerce minister Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim al-Thani.

He informed that Turkey has exported 15,000 tons of supplies to Qatar so far during this crisis and the total value of their exports to Qatar has reached about USD 15 million.

Zeybekci also expressed hope that ongoing blockade will soon end and everything will go back to normal.

He added that Turkey hopes that this issue would be resolved within the bounds of brotherhood between these countries.

Asserting that Qatar's economy is very strong, al-Thani said that their economy has always shown resilience in the face of regional and global economic crises.

He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish people and Zeybekci for their continuous support to Qatar since the beginning of the blockade.

"Qatar and Turkey have very close relations. Meetings with our Turkish counterparts about joint projects are continuing. We can make investments in many areas," he said.