Mohammad: Turkey can search consulate

‘We have nothing to hide,’ Saudi crown prince says over missing critic

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman said he’s ready to allow Turkey to search the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul for a Saudi journalist critical of his rule who went missing after entering the building.

“The premises are sovereign territory, but we will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do,” Prince Mohammad said in an interview on Wednesday at a royal palace in Riyadh. “We have nothing to hide.” Jamal Khashoggi, who’s been living in self-imposed exile for the past year, has been missing since Tuesday.

His fiancee and friends say they fear he’s been detained or kidnapped for his criticism of the government.

The prince, however, said Khashoggi left the building not long after he entered.

He said the arrests of clerics, women activists and some businessmen over the past year were a small price to pay for peacefully eradicating extremism in the world’s top oil exporter.

“I am the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and I am trying to do the best that I can do through my position.”

Asked in the interview whether the journalist faces charges in Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammad said it was first important to discover where Khashoggi was.

“If he’s in Saudi Arabia, would know that,” he said.

Turkey opens probe

IMeanwhile, Turkish prosecutors have begun investigating the disappearance of Khashoggi, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported yesterday.