Turkey on Saturday accused Saudi Arabia of failing to cooperate with a probe into the disappearance of a journalist inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Comments by Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu represented a hardening of Ankara’s hitherto circumspect tone over the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has not been seen since he stepped inside the consulate on Oct. 2.
Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, and lurid claims have been leaked to media that he was tortured and even dismembered.
Saudi Arabia insists Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor whose writings have been critical of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left the building safely, but has yet to offer visual evidence of this.
The outcry surrounding his disappearance threatens to not just harm brittle Turkey-Saudi relations, but also alarm the kingdom’s supporters in the West and tarnish the reform drive spearheaded by the crown prince.
Ankara had said that a search of the consulate had been agreed, but this has yet to materialize amid reports the two sides are at odds over the conditions of entry into what is Saudi sovereign territory.
“We still have not seen cooperation in order to ensure a smooth investigation and bring everything to light. We want to see this,” Cavusoglu said.
Riyadh must let Turkish “prosecutors and experts enter the consulate” to carry out their investigation, he said.
A Saudi delegation was in Turkey and due to have talks this weekend in Ankara, and take part in a working group on the disappearance, Turkish media said.
Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside the consulate when he went inside to sort out marriage paperwork, echoed the call on Twitter, urging Saudi Arabia to “officially reveal what happened” to him.
She said Saturday marked the 60th birthday of Khashoggi and she had previously planned “a surprise party” in Istanbul by the Bosphorus.
Saudi Minister of the Interior Prince Abdel Aziz bin Saud bin Nayef slammed claims that the kingdom ordered Khashoggi to be killed inside the consulate as “baseless allegations and lies.”
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS