Turkey's Erdogan to visit Qatar and Saudi Arabia in bid to mediate 'pointless' diplomatic crisis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Qatar and Saudi Arabia later this month as the Gulf region remains locked in a diplomatic crisis.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara will continue to play a "constructive and active" role to help solve what he described as a "pointless" crisis.

Yildirim added Erdogan's visit would be part of this effort.

Erdogan is expected to visit Saudi Arabia then Kuwait on July 23 followed by Qatar on July 24, according to private news agency Dogan.

The visit comes as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt cut all ties with Doha and began a blockade on the Gulf country early in June.

The bloc issued a 13-point ultimatum to Qatar, which included demands to close a Turkish military base, shuttering Al Jazeera media network, and ending relations with Iran.

Turkey has strongly backed Qatar in the diplomatic crisis, sending 100 cargo planes with supplies since the Saudi-led bloc cut air, land, and sea links.

But it has also been careful not to antagonise Gulf ally Saudi Arabia which appears to have spearheaded the campaign against Qatar.

Last month, Erdogan said that the blockade on Qatar violated international law, and was an attack on the "sovereign rights of a state".

Ankara has said it will not bow to pressure to close their airbase in the Gulf country.

Qatar called the Saudi bloc's demands "unreasonable" and said it infringed on its "sovereignty". 

The Gulf crisis is the worst to hit the region since the establishment of the GCC in 1981.