President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has invited Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince to visit Kazakhstan at a meeting with another Saudi royal, his office said on Thursday.
It was not clear when the meeting might take place.
The veteran Kazakh leader often gets involved in broader international affairs and was credited with helping to resolve a standoff between Ankara and Moscow over the Turkish downing of a Russian jet near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.
The killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul four weeks ago has escalated into a political crisis for Riyadh.
The outcry in the United States demonizing Saudi Arabia over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul threatens U.S.-Saudi strategic ties, the former Saudi intelligence minister warned on Wednesday."We value our strategic relationship with the United States and hope to sustain it. We hope the United States reciprocates in kind," royal family member Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud said in an address to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, a non-profit advocacy organization.Turki, to whom Khashoggi once served as an adviser, has also served as an ambassador to London and Washington. His speech denouncing what he called "the demonization of Saudi Arabia" clearly carried Riyadh's imprimatur, as he heads an Islamic research center named after his father, the late King Faisal.‘Turkey will not allow cover up,’ says ruling partyTurki's address came after Istanbul's chief prosecutor on Tuesday said that Khashoggi was suffocated in a premeditated killing and his body was then dismembered.Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States, wrote columns for the Washington Post critical of the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Some U.S. lawmakers have accused the crown prince of ordering Khashoggi's death - a charge that Riyadh denies - and threatened sanctions. U.S. commentators have strongly condemned the kingdom.Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killingRecalling that more than 70 years of U.S.-Saudi ties survived previous crises, Turki said, "Nowadays, this relationship is once again threatened.""The tragic and unjustified" slaying of Khashoggi "is the theme of today's onslaught and demonization of Saudi Arabia in the same fashion as the previous crises. The intensity and gleefulness of it is equally unfair," he said. "Subjecting our relationship to this issue is not healthy at all."Turki reiterated that the kingdom is committed to bringing to justice those responsible for Khashoggi's murder "and whoever else failed to uphold the law."EU reiterates call for 'credible' probe into KhashoggiThe Trump administration is demanding full accountability from Riyadh in Khashoggi's death. In what it called a first step, it revoked the visas of some Saudi officials implicated in the slaying.The U.S.-Saudi relationship "is too big to fail," Turki said.Those ties, he noted, transcend oil production, trade, arms sales and investment to cooperation on Middle East peace efforts, stabilizing oil markets, fighting extremism and containing Iran, the kingdom's main regional foe. Khashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered: Turkish prosecutorCadaver dog used to search Saudi consulate denied entry into consul-general’s residence
Khashoggi murder outcry threatens US-Saudi ties, Saudi prince says
Turkey wants to know the whereabouts of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body, the country’s ruling party said on Wednesday.Khashoggi went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.After initially saying Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, the Saudi administration admitted weeks later he had died there."We want to know where the body [of Khashoggi] is, we want that our authorities receive information about who the local collaborators are", Ömer Çelik, spokesman for the Justice and Development (AK) Party, said at a news conference in Ankara.Khashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered: Turkish prosecutorSpeaking about the probe into the murder of Khashoggi, Çelik said it was "not an action to be performed without instructions from a higher level"."Turkey does not blame anyone in advance, but won't allow cover up of anything," he added.Investigation of the incident suggests a special hit squad came to the consulate to kill Kashoggi and cover up the murder.Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that all details of the case should be revealed, including who gave the instruction for the "premeditated murder".U.S. President Donald Trump said he could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia, but also signaled that he did not want to harm bilateral relations.Telephoning Erdogan, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman promised necessary cooperation.The chief prosecutor's office in Riyadh also announced that the murder was planned.Cadaver dog used to search Saudi consulate denied entry into consul-general’s residenceTurkey's drilling activitiesÇelik said Turkish army is protecting the drilling ship "Fatih" in the Mediterranean and suggested Greece and Greek Cypriot administration to abstain from any attempt against it.Noting Turkey's gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean is being carried out on legal ground, he added: "The block 7 is in Turkey’s continental shelf."The block 7 is one of the blocks located in the unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone by the Greek Cypriot Administration and it wants to invite foreign energy firms for natural gas exploration.Çelik said any attempt from Greece to gradually widen its territorial waters will be “strongly” responded by Turkey.Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including the latest initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. collapsing in 2017.Turkey blames Greek Cypriot intransigence for the talks' failure, also faulting the European Union for admitting Cyprus as a divided island into the union in 2004 after Greek Cypriot voters rejected a peace deal.Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killing
‘Turkey will not allow cover up,’ says ruling party
On Oct. 20, Arabic-language website alawatanews.com published a report that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been forced out of power.Citing the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), it said King Salman had signed a decree removing the prince "against the backdrop of growing pressure that accompanies the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi."The report was false. The SPA has never published such an article, the wording and picture were lifted from a year-old royal court announcement about the removal of a former crown prince and MbS, as he is widely known, remains in his position.The story and the website that published it are part of a fierce information war being waged online over the killing of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government last seen entering Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.Automated accounts known as bots have flooded social media in recent weeks, many of them promoting messages which support Saudi Arabia and are intended to cast doubt on allegations that the kingdom was involved in Khashoggi's death.EU reiterates call for 'credible' probe into KhashoggiKhashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered: Turkish prosecutorBut another effort has also sought to muddy the waters more broadly, using fake news websites and associated bots to sow confusion about developments inside the Saudi government.Alawatanews.com is part of a network of at least 53 websites which, posing as authentic Arabic-language news outlets, have spread false information about the Saudi government and Khashoggi's murder, a Reuters analysis shows.Investigators at Israeli cybersecurity firm ClearSky said a review of host-server addresses and registration details showed the websites were operating as part of the same network. Many of them also have near-identical design layouts and web addresses, or have published the same or similar fake news reports.The alawatanews.com report, which said MbS had been replaced by his brother because of the fallout from Khashoggi's death, was typical of those articles. Another, published by a website called awwtarnews.com on Oct. 22, said an MbS aide had also been replaced for the same reason, which was not true.Saudi prosecutor discusses Khashoggi case with Turkish intelligenceAfter being published online, the false news articles were shared on Twitter by automated bot accounts -- many of which repeatedly posted links to multiple sites from the network.Twitter suspended the accounts shortly after receiving questions about them from Reuters. Alawatanews.com, awwtarnews.com, the Saudi government and SPA did not respond to requests for comment.A person called Mohammed Trabay with a registered address in Egypt is listed online as the owner and operator of the majority of the 53 websites. When reached by phone, a man who identified himself as Mohammed Trabay confirmed he was the owner of the websites but hung up when asked for further details.In subsequent emailed comments he denied any connection to the network and said he had not understood the questions when asked by phone."Sorry, I can't help you," he said. "I don't have any relation with the sites you mention."UN calls for impartial probe into Khashoggi’s killingSaudi Arabia's Electronic ArmyThe Saudi government initially said that it did not know what had happened to Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post, when he disappeared after entering its consulate in Turkey.Under pressure to say more about Khashoggi's fate, and following Turkey asserting that he had been killed, Riyadh later changed its version of events to say he had died in a fight in the Istanbul consulate.When that statement was also widely questioned, Riyadh offered a new explanation, blaming Khashoggi's death on a premeditated "rogue operation" in which Saudi individuals exceeded their authority.U.S. President Donald Trump has said Saudi authorities staged the "worst cover-up ever" but has also made more conciliatory remarks that highlight Riyadh's role as a U.S. ally against Iran and Islamist militants, as well as a purchaser of U.S. arms.Online, the journalist's death has served to show how governments and people are increasingly able to manipulate information and social media to further their political agendas, said Lisa-Maria Neudert, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, a department of Oxford University."Setting up misinformation pages purporting to be real news, leveraging highly divisive and controversial current issues, and using fake accounts and personas to conceal the originators of attacks are somewhat of the ABCs of computational propaganda," she said.At the centre of Saudi Arabia's online efforts is Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide to the Crown Prince who was hired in the early 2000s to run an electronic media army tasked with protecting Saudi Arabia's image, according to a source with ties to the royal court.When Riyadh led an economic boycott against Qatar in June 2017, Qahtani was at the forefront of online attacks against the small Gulf state. On Twitter, he urged Saudis to tweet the names of anyone showing sympathy with Qatar under the Arabic hashtag "The Black List".Qahtani was sacked on Oct. 20 over allegations that he was involved in Khashoggi's murder. A senior Saudi official said he had authorised one of his subordinates to conduct what was meant to be a negotiation for Khashoggi's return to Saudi Arabia. Qahtani did not respond to questions from Reuters at the time.Saudi authorities have not disclosed whether or not he is in detention and the status of his "flies", as his electronic army is known, is unclear. The Saudi authorities did not respond to a request for comment.Opponents of the Saudi authorities have also been active online. Facebook and other companies identified a suspected Iranian influence operation in August which used a network of sham news sites and fake social media personas to spread disinformation, some of it targeted at Saudi Arabia. Iranian officials have dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous".Washington Post awaits answers on Khashoggi murderMystery PerpetratorTwitter said it has removed large numbers of accounts for breaching its terms of use over the last two weeks, many of them originating from the Gulf region."Targeted platform manipulation and coordinated spam are a violation of the Twitter Rules and we will continue to enforce our policies vigorously," a Twitter spokesman said.Reuters has found such bot accounts and influential Saudi users repeatedly posting hashtags on Twitter including "Qatari intelligence kills Khashoggi" and "Saudi Arabia the greatest," although it found no evidence Qahtani or the Saudi government controlled or directed those accounts.Saudi Arabia's biggest online newspaper Sabq has also accused the international media, including Reuters, of using Khashoggi's disappearance to try to undermine the government, and released a statement on Oct. 21 saying a fake news story was being circulated under its name.The websites identified by Reuters as spreading false news about the Saudi government have operated as part of the same network since 2017, said ClearSky analyst Ohad Zaidenberg.Video: First-ever misinformation news-stand opened in New YorkAll bar three of the websites have been taken down, although it is not clear who dismantled the network, when or why, said Zaidenberg, who previously tracked online influence campaigns for Israel's elite 8200 intelligence unit.But the sites which are still online, as well as archived copies of those which are now disabled, provide an insight into the network's operations and aims -- to undermine the official Saudi version of events and spread confusion around its government."Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the main powers in the Middle East. Accordingly, many operators of fake news infrastructure target the Saudi Arabian audience with increasing frequency," Zaidenberg said, adding that a perpetrator could not be identified at this stage.Web-hosting and support companies Hetzner, GoDaddy and Cloudflare all declined to give any information about the websites' operator, citing client confidentiality. 
Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killing