Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on Thursday held talks in Turkey with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first visit abroad since the start of a diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia, AFP reports.
Erdogan hosted the emir for the talks at his presidential palace in the capital Ankara, the Turkish presidency said in a statement quoted by the news agency.
Both leaders emphasized the importance of solving the crisis in the Gulf diplomatically and vowed to further bolster relations between Ankara and Doha, said Turkish presidential sources, cited by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt all severed relations with Qatar in June over allegations that it supports terrorism. Qatar denies the charges.
They later placed dozens of figures linked to the country on blacklists, including Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the spiritual leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Erdogan has been a major supporter of Doha in the crisis.
After the four boycotting countries delivered 13 demands to ending the crisis, the Turkish President said the demands were unacceptable.
Shortly after the boycott was announced, The Turkish President Erdogan claimed that he has never known Qatar to give support to terror organizations.
"They declare foundations established to provide different services as terror organizations. Something like this should not happen. I know those foundations. Until today I have not witnessed Qatar give support to terror," he said at the time.
After visiting Turkey, the Qatari emir is due to visit Berlin on Friday for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, his first trip to a western capital since the crisis began.