Saudi delegation arrive in Turkey
A DELEGATION from Saudi Arabia has arrived in Turkey as part of a joint investigation into the disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, three Turkish sources said yesterday.
A Saudi source also said a senior royal, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, visited Turkey on Thursday for talks. Later the same day Turkey said the two countries had agreed to form a joint working group, at Riyadh’s initiative, to investigate the case.
Mr Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in İstanbul last Tuesday to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Saudi officials say he left shortly afterwards but Turkish officials and his fiancée, who was waiting outside, said he never came out.
Turkish sources have said the initial assessment of the police was that Mr Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the Saudi government, was deliberately killed inside the consulate. Riyadh has dismissed the allegations as baseless.
“A delegation has arrived in Turkey as part of efforts to form a joint working group with Saudi Arabia,” one of the three sources said.
The delegation, which came on Thursday, is meeting a Turkish prosecutor investigating the case as well as representatives from the Justice Ministry, Interior Ministry, police and the national intelligence agency, another source said.
There is no set date for how long the meetings will take, but “very quick results need to be seen”, the source said. The team is now in İstanbul and will continue to work over the weekend, the source added.
Prince Khaled, the governor of Mecca, made his brief visit in his capacity as special adviser to King Salman, a source with links to the Prince’s family said, in a move that would suggest the monarch was treating the issue as a priority.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has previously said that Turkey could not remain silent over Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance and called on officials at the Saudi consulate in İstanbul to prove he had left the building.
On Tuesday, the Turkish foreign ministry said the Saudi consulate in İstanbul would be searched as part of the investigation
Meanwhile media companies are pulling out of a Saudi investment conference because of growing outrage over the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi.
Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes will not participate in the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, spokeswoman Lauren Hackett said in an email.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, a CNBC anchor and New York Times business journalist, tweeted that he was not attending the conference, saying he was “terribly distressed by the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi and reports of his murder.”
The New York Times Co has also decided to pull out of the event as a media sponsor, spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said.
The Financial Times said in a statement that it was reviewing its involvement as a media partner.
The disappearance of Mr Khashoggi has also cast a shadow over the threeday conference known as “Davos in the desert,” which is scheduled to begin on October 23. Billionaire, Steve Case, one of the founders of AOL, decided to distance himself from Saudi Arabia, saying he would no longer attend the event
Former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz also said that he had suspended his role on the board of Saudi Arabia’s planned mega business zone Neom until more is known about what happened.