Missing reporter: ‘Saudi crown prince ordered hit’
WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler ordered an operation targeting journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi, who has been missing for more than a week, The Washington Post has reported citing US intelligence intercepts.
Khashoggi -- a US resident and one of the more outspoken critics of the regime of King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, and Turkish officials suspect he was murdered.ThePost,anewspaper to which Khashoggi contributed, cited unnamed US officials as saying that Saudi officials had been heard discussing a plan to lure Khashoggi from the US state of Virginia, where he resided, and detain him.
The paper quoted several of Khashoggi’s friends as saying that senior Saudi officials had approached him offering protection, or even a high-level government job, if he returned home -but that Khashoggi was skeptical of the offers. State department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino earlier insisted that the US had no forewarning of any concrete threat to Khashoggi.
“Although I can’t go into intelligence matters, I can definitively say that we had no knowledge in advance of Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance,” Palladino told reporters. The case has sparked outrage from human rights and journalism groups and threatens to harm ties between Saudi Arabia and the United States, which has demanded answers from the kingdom over the disappearance.
HIT TEAM INCLUDED SOLDIERS: REPORTS
Saudi royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert were part of a 15-member team from the kingdom that targeted Khashoggi, Turkish media said on Thursday.
The reported details, coupled with more-direct comments from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appear aimed at gradually pressuring Saudi Arabia to reveal what happened to Khashoggi, while also balancing Ankara’s need to maintain the kingdom’s investments in Turkey and relations on other issues.
Turkish officials say they fear Saudi Arabia killed and dismembered Khashoggi, without offering evidence explaining why they believe that.
Information leaked to media about the Saudi team likely come from the country’s security services as another means to pressure the kingdom over Khashoggi’s October 2 disappearance. The Hurriyet newspaper alleged that the consulate’s 28 local staff were given the day off because a “diplomats’ meeting” would be held there.