Will Egyptian-Turkish reconciliation extend to Saudi Arabia?

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will travel to Saudi Arabia soon to improve strained relations between the two countries, following the start of formal steps on the road to Egyptian-Turkish reconciliation, Turkish Zaman reports, citing Middle East Eye.

A delegation headed by the Egyptian and Turkish Deputy Foreign Ministers began talks yesterday in Cairo in preparation for reconciliation and normalization of the relations that have been severed between the two countries since 2013.

Middle East website quoted anonymous sources as saying : Çavuşoğlu will travel to Saudi Arabia for the first high-level visit since the murder of a Saudi opposition journalist in 2018.

The visit comes at a time when Ankara and Riyadh are seeking to improve relations that have been strained since the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and last year’s extension of the kingdom’s informal boycott of Turkish goods.

Saudi authorities have called for an informal boycott of Turkish goods and services since last October, after Erdogan accused the kingdom and its allies of destabilizing the region.

The visit comes in the wake of bilateral talks between Turkey and Egypt, which informed sources say represent both Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The visit, Çavuşoğlu’s first trip to Riyadh in 4 years, was set during a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Saudi King Salman on Tuesday night, Middle East News reported.

The official Anatolia News Agency reported that King Salman and Erdoğan discussed bilateral relations in a conversation, the second between them in less than a month.

The same source quoted unnamed sources as saying that in addition to attempts to reform bilateral relations during the visit, the Kingdom’s closure of Turkish schools belonging to the Turkish Ministry of Education will be among the issues to be discussed.

Last March, Suzcu newspaper reported, citing a senior official at the Ministry of Education, that 5 Turkish schools in the cities of Mecca and Medina were closed at the end of last year, despite the efforts of the Turkish authorities to intervene to prevent this.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported last month that Riyadh was set to close 8 Turkish schools after the Saudi Ministry of Education notified the schools administrators of the decision.