UAE BACKS RIYADH
dubai — The UAE reiterated its backing for Saudi Arabia as investigations into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi continue in Turkey, and said efforts to destabilise the kingdom based on insinuations and selective leaks would fail. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, on Friday tweeted that Saudi Arabia holds a special place in the Middle East and the world, and any attempt to tarnish the kingdom’s reputation and damage its economy would have global ramifications.
“From our perspective, the security and stability of the region depends on Saudi Arabia. It has political, economic and religious importance in world affairs,” said Dr Gargash.
He said it is important to get to the bottom of the truth but simply targeting Riyadh for Khashoggi’s disappearance in Istanbul is unacceptable to the UAE, the minister said as he lashed out at false information out by some media.
Meanwhile, Turkey widened the investigation into the disappear-
ance of Khashoggi after his visit to the Saudi consulate, searching a forest in the city.
Ankara also denied giving any audio recording to US officials from the investigation about Khashoggi.
US President Donald Trump acknowledged that Khashoggi was likely dead even as his fate remained unclear 17 days after he vanished.
Istanbul’s Belgrade forest became a target of the investigation. The forest, a vast area and sufficiently remote for even locals to regularly get lost there, is nearly 15 kilometres away from the Saudi consulate.
From our perspective, the security and stability of the region depends on Saudi Arabia. It has political, economic and religious importance in world affairs
Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
Investigators already conducted two searches of the consulate and a nine-hour search of the consul’s residence this week.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu did not reveal probe details but promised to share information in due course “in a transparent manner”.
“It is out of the question for us to share this or that information with any country,” he said during a visit to Albania’s capital, Tirana.
The key potential piece of evidence in the investigation is an alleged audio tape whose existence has been reported by pro-government media.
ABC News on Thursday quoted an unnamed Turkish official saying US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heard the audio tape and was shown a transcript of the recording during his visit to Ankara.
But Pompeo said he had neither “seen” nor “heard” a tape and had not read a transcript during the visit to Ankara where he held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Cavusoglu.
Cavusoglu on Friday also denied the claims and said it was “out of the question for Turkey to give any kind of audio tape to Pompeo or any other US official”. —