Saudis ‘to admit killing of writer’
US envoy heads for meeting with king, teams search consulate
Turkish forensics teams have searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for evidence relating to the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, as reports circulate that the kingdom may concede the killing took place there.
Technicians in coveralls, gloves and covered shoes treated the consulate, where Khashoggi vanished two weeks ago, as a crime scene during their hours-long search yesterday. It wasn’t immediately clear what evidence they gathered.
US President Donald Trump, after speaking with Saudi King Salman, dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to speak to the monarch of the world’s top oil exporter over Khashoggi’s disappearance. Trump himself said without offering evidence that the slaying could have been carried out by “rogue killers”, offering the US-allied kingdom a possible path out of a global diplomatic firestorm.
Left unsaid was the fact that any decision in the ultraconservative kingdom rests solely with the ruling Al Saud family. Noticeably absent from discussions was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Khashoggi wrote critically about for the Washington Post and whose rise to power prompted the writer to go into a self-imposed exile in the US.
“The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to deescalate tensions,” said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group’s Mideast and North African practice. “Riyadh will have to provide some explanation of the journalist’s disappearance, but in a manner that distances the leadership from any claim that a decision was made at senior levels to assassinate the prominent journalist.”
CNN reported that the Saudis were going to admit the killing had occurred but deny the king or crown prince had ordered it — which does not match what analysts and experts know about the kingdom’s inner workings.
The New York Times reported that the Saudi royal court would suggest that an official within the kingdom’s intelligence services — a friend of Prince Mohammed — had carried out the killing. According to that reported claim, the crown prince had approved an interrogation or rendition of Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, but the intelligence official was tragically incompetent as he eagerly sought to prove himself. Both reports cited anonymous people said to be familiar with the Saudi plans.
Saudi officials have not answered repeated requests for comment over recent days.
What evidence Turkish officials could gather at the consulate remained unknown. Saudi officials have been in and out of the building since Khashoggi’s disappearance on October 2 without being stopped. Under the Vienna Convention, diplomatic posts are technically foreign soil that must be protected and respected by host countries.
The Turkish inspection team included a prosecutor, a deputy prosecutor, anti-terror police and forensic experts, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.
Khashoggi has written extensively for the Post about Saudi Arabia, criticising its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a driving ban for women. Those policies are all seen as initiatives of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman.
Khashoggi’s disappearance has led several business leaders and media outlets to back out of an upcoming investment conference in Riyadh.