Saudi embassy denies reports of Turkey travel warning

ANKARA (AA) - The Saudi embassy in Ankara on Sunday denied reports it had issued any statements advising Saudi citizens against travelling to Turkey.

“Some media and websites have issued reports of a statement attributed to the embassy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques [i.e., Saudi Arabia] in Ankara that included an advisory to all citizens wishing to travel to Turkey to postpone their trips or change their destination,” the embassy said in an official statement.

“In this regard, the embassy asserts that this statement is baseless and not authentic, and was not issued by the embassy,” it added.

Turkey supports Kuwaiti attempts at mediation in an ongoing political crisis pitting the small Gulf state of Qatar against a handful of other Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia.

Since the crisis began earlier this month, Turkey has deployed troops to Qatar where they are training Qatari forces.

On June 5, five Arab states -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen -- abruptly cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Mauritania followed suit shortly afterward, while Jordan has downgraded its diplomatic representation in Doha.

Saudi Arabia has also sealed its land border with Qatar, geographically isolating it.

Doha, for its part, strenuously denies that it supports terrorism, describing the moves to isolate it as “unjustified”.