Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will travel to Saudi Arabia for an official visit on May 10-11, the ministry said Monday.
“Within the framework of the visit of Minister Çavuşoğlu, bilateral relations will be discussed and views on regional issues will be exchanged during his meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faysal bin Farhan bin Abdullah El Saud,” a statement by the ministry said.
Turkey's ties with Saudi Arabia, already strained by Ankara's support for Qatar in a Gulf dispute, were thrown into crisis when Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi – a critic of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) – was killed by a Saudi hit squad in Istanbul in 2018.
Aside from the Khashoggi incident, Saudi Arabia’s rapprochement with Israel, support of the coup in Egypt and its stance on Libya and Syria have been other points of contention between Ankara and Riyadh.
The crisis prompted an unofficial Saudi boycott of Turkish goods, slashing trade value by 98%. Saudi Arabia is also closing eight Turkish schools in the kingdom, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported last month.
The visit comes amid the ongoing tensions in Jerusalem. Palestinians in Jerusalem in recent days have protested in solidarity with the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood amid attacks by Israeli police. The crisis stems from a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court in East Jerusalem, which approved a decision to evict seven Palestinian families from their homes in the neighborhood in favor of Israeli settlers at the beginning of this year. Israeli police attempted to disperse worshippers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Friday evening using stun grenades and tear gas. Hundreds of Palestinians were injured in the attacks, which have been condemned worldwide.
