President Erdoğan congratulates new Saudi crown prince

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince Mohamed bin Salman in a telephone call early on June 22, with the two men expressing a desire for stronger ties between their countries, according to presidential sources.  
      
Erdoğan and the crown prince also agreed “to increase efforts to end tension over Qatar,” the sources said, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.  
     
Erdoğan and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz will have a face-to-face meeting at the G20 Summit on July 7-8 in Hamburg, Germany.      
  
In a royal decree early on June 21, Salman placed his son, Mohammed, 31, as first in line to the throne. He also relieved Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, 57, from his position as the deputy prime minister and interior minister.  
      
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen severed ties with Doha on June 5, and shut their air, land and sea borders to Qatari vessels earlier this month. Qatar’s neighbors accuse it of supporting terror groups, a claim that Doha denies.  
      
Qatar has denied the accusations and said the move to diplomatically isolate it was “unjustified.”        
That country’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on June 21 also congratulated the new crown prince, according to state news agency QNA.        

In separate cables to the king and the prince, Doha said it wished for “more progress for brotherly relations between the two brotherly countries,” QNA said.