TURKEY SAYS ‘JOINT PROBE’ PLANNED AT SAUDI CONSULATE

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are expected to conduct a joint “inspection” on Monday of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, nearly two weeks after the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Turkish authorities said.

The announcement from an official at Turkey’s foreign ministry comes as international concern continues to grow over the writer who vanished on a visit to the consulate on October 2. American lawmakers have threatened tough punitive action against the Saudis, and Germany, France and Britain jointly called for a “credible investigation” into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The Turkish official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations. Officials in Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Turkish officials have said they fear a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered Khashoggi, who wrote critically of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The kingdom has called such allegations “baseless” but has not offered any evidence Khashoggi ever left the consulate.

Such a search would be an extraordinary development, as embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations. Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to appease its Western allies and the international community.

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