‘Blind eye’ to the murder of Khashoggi
US President Donald Trump’s comments on the investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi show that he will turn a “blind eye” to the incident no matter what, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.
Trump has vowed to remain a “steadfast partner” of ally Saudi Arabia despite saying that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have known about the plan to murder Khashoggi last month.
Speaking to broadcaster CNN Turk, Cavusoglu also said the United States had not informed Turkey of an audio recording regarding Khashoggi’s killing, a day after a Turkish daily reported that the CIA was in possession of a recording in which the crown prince ordered to “silence Khashoggi”.
He also said there was no reason President Tayyip Erdogan and the crown prince could not meet during a visit to Argentina for the G20 summit, adding that the final decision was Erdogan’s.
On Thursday, the crown prince embarked on a regional tour starting with the United Arab Emirates, his first official trip abroad since the murder tipped the kingdom into crisis. The prince is also set to travel to the Tunisian capital on Tuesday.
‘Vicious world’
Citing vehement denials by the crown prince and Saudi King Salman that they were involved, Trump said on Thursday: “Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very, very vicious place.”
He said that the CIA had not drawn any conclusion on the case of Khashoggi’s death.
“They did not come to a conclusion,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“Nobody’s concluded. I don’t know if anyone could conclude that the crown prince did it,” he added.
Critics in the US Congress and high-ranking officials in other countries are accusing Trump of giving Saudi Arabia a pass for economic reasons, including its influence on the world oil market.
Trump said this week he would not impose harsher penalties on the Saudi crown prince over the death of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.
“My policy is very simple: America first, keep America great again and that’s what I’m doing,” Trump told reporters after a Thanksgiving Day telephone call with members of the military.
The crown prince and his father, King Salman, said they did not commit “this atrocity”, Trump said.
“It’s a terrible thing. I dislike it more than you do. But the fact is ... they create tremendous wealth, really tremendous jobs in their purchases and very importantly, they keep the oil price down.”
Meanwhile, France on Thursday imposed sanctions, including a travel ban on 18 Saudi citizens who were suspected to have been involved in the killing of Khashoggi.
In coordination with European partners, notably Germany, France issued the travel ban that covered the 26-nation Schengen zone.