Turkey’s Erdogan to reveal ‘full detail’ of Khashoggi’s death
Western leaders demand Riyadh say more on fate of Saudi journalist
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified the pressure on Saudi Arabia over the death of Jamal Khashoggi, casting doubts on Riyadh’s claims that the journalist died in a fist-fight and saying he would reveal what happened in “full detail”.
Saudi Arabia finally admitted at the weekend that Khashoggi was killed in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul this month after two weeks of denials. It said it had detained 18 unidentified Saudis over the incident. But Riyadh has changed its story several times and its claims that the 60-year-old columnist was killed in a fight have been widely condemned as lacking credibility.
Turkish officials have previously said they believe Khashoggi was killed by a 15-man Saudi hit team that flew into Istanbul and later dismembered his body. Mr Erdogan, who has been restrained in his comments over the past two weeks, referred to that version of events in a speech on Sunday.
“Why did 15 people come here; why were 18 people detained?” All of this must be explained in full detail,” he said. “On Tuesday, these things will be explained in a very different way at the group meeting [of Turkey’s ruling party]. There I will go into these details.”
A Turkish official told the Financial Times that Ankara had successfully “shamed” Riyadh into an admission of guilt. “Now we have to get the full story. We will refute the claim that a fist-fight caused this mess.”
If Mr Erdogan reveals the details of Khashoggi’s death on Tuesday, it would coincide with the opening of Saudi Arabia’s flagship investor conference in Riyadh. A growing list of western government ministers and executives have withdrawn from the gathering because of the crisis.
Western leaders have also demanded that Riyadh provide more details on the death of Khashoggi, one of the Middle East’s most prominent journalists who was living in self-exile in the US.
Riyadh, grappling with its biggest diplomatic crisis since the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001, has provided no evidence to back its claims and it is still not clear where Khashoggi’s body is.
In a joint statement on Sunday, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany “stressed that more efforts are needed and expected towards establishing the truth in a comprehensive, transparent and credible manner”.
The statement added that “nothing can justify this killing and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms”.
“We will ultimately make our judgment based on the credibility of the further explanation we receive about what happened and our confidence that such a shameful event cannot and will not ever be repeated,” the statement said.
After initially hinting that he would accept Saudi Arabia’s claim, US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was “not satisfied” with its explanation for the death of the journalist, who wrote a column for the Washington Post
“I am not satisfied until we find the answer,” Mr Trump told reporters, adding he was considering imposing sanctions on Riyadh, the main Arab ally of the US.
Analysts and activists believe any operation mounted against Khashoggi could not have been authorised without the knowledge of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler who has forged close ties with the Trump administration.
In a sign that Prince Mohammed will not bear any responsibility for the crisis, his father, King Salman, named the 33-year-old crown prince to head a committee to restructure the intelligence services within 30 days.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia already have strained relations and vie for influence in the Middle East. Riyadh was annoyed by Ankara’s support for Qatar after Saudi Arabia and its allies imposed a regional embargo on the Gulf state. It also considers Turkey as sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that the kingdom describes as a terrorist group.