File photo
Istanbul's chief prosecutor has filed warrants for the arrest of a top aide to Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler and the deputy head of foreign intelligence on suspicion of planning the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, two Turkish officials said on Wednesday.
The prosecutor's office has concluded there is "strong suspicion" that Saud al-Qahtani and General Ahmed al-Asiri, who were removed from their positions in October, were among the planners of the Oct. 2 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the officials said.
"The prosecution's move to issue arrest warrants for Asiri and Qahtani reflects the view that the Saudi authorities won’t take formal action against those individuals," one of the Turkish officials said.
A delegation from Yemen's Saudi-backed government left for Sweden on Wednesday to hold peace talks with representatives of the Iranian-aligned Houthi group, in a renewed U.N. push to end a war that has brought economic ruin and famine to the country.The team representing the internationally recognised government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi left from the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh for the consultations, the first since 2016, a Yemeni official said.Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, leaders of a Western-backed coalition battling the Houthis to restore Hadi's government, want to exit a war that had dragged on for four years.Western allies have ramped up pressure on them to find a way to end a conflict that killed tens of thousands of people and left more than 8 million facing famine.Outrage over the Oct. 2 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate has refocused attention on the Yemen war and scrutiny over Saudi Arabia's activities in the region.U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths secured some confidence-building measures, including the evacuation of Houthi wounded, to help persuade the rebel movement to attend the talks Sweden.The Houthi delegation arrived there on Tuesday, having failed to turn up for the last round of talks in September in Geneva.
Saudi-backed Yemeni government team heads to Sweden for peace talks
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman is "complicit" in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a senator said Tuesday.Senator Lindsey Graham said the de facto ruler of the kingdom was surely responsible for the Saudi journalist's death."The crown prince, is a wrecking ball. I think he’s complicit in the murder of Khashoggi to the highest level possible," Graham told reporters after an intelligence briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel.Haspel briefed a small group of senators on the killing of Khashoggi, after an outcry by lawmakers for her absence last week during a Senate briefing on Yemen that was attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton.The CIA has yet to make a public comment on the killing, but reports said that the agency concluded the crown prince ordered the murder.Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.A high-five from Putin and that awkward photograph: Saudi prince's G20 summitAfter initially saying he had left the consulate alive, weeks later the Saudi administration admitted he was killed there.Graham said bin Salman and Saudi Arabia were two separate entities, and the crown prince could not serve as a reliable partner to the U.S."I find it very difficult to be able to do business because I think he’s crazy. I think he is dangerous, and he has put the relationship at risk," he said. "I cannot support arms sales to Saudi Arabia as long he is gonna be in charge of this country. The war in Yemen has gotten out of control."Senator Bob Corker, one of eight senators at the briefing, also told reporters he believed bin Salman was responsible for the murder."If he was in front of a jury he’d be convicted in 30 minutes, guilty," said Corker."I have zero question in my mind that the crown prince, MBS, ordered the killing, monitored the killing," he added, referring to bin Salman by his initials.In response to a comment made by Bolton, Graham said there was no smoking gun, but there was a "smoking saw," referring to reports a bone saw was used to dismember Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate.Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing: reportSaudi Arabia refuses to engage in WTO dispute brought by Qatar
Bin Salman 'complicit' in Khashoggi murder: US senator