Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih on Tuesday admitted that Saudi Arabia was “in crisis” over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Saudi Arabia is going through a crisis,” al-Falih said in statements on the sidelines of a major investment conference in the capital Riyadh.
He described Khashoggi’s killing as “abhorrent and cannot be justified”.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was last seen on Oct. 2 when he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
He ran social media for Saudi Arabia's crown prince. He masterminded the arrest of hundreds of his country's elite. He detained a Lebanese prime minister. And, according to two intelligence sources, he ran journalist Jamal Khashoggi's brutal killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by giving orders over Skype.Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is one of the fall guys as Riyadh tries to stem international outrage at Khashoggi’s death. On Saturday, Saudi state media said King Salman had sacked Qahtani and four other officials over the killing carried out by a 15-man hit team.But Qahtani's influence in the crown prince's entourage has been so vast over the past three years - his own rise tracking that of his boss - that it will be hard for Saudi officials to paint Qahtani as the mastermind of the murder without also raising questions about the involvement of Prince Mohammed, according to several sources with links to the royal court."This episode won't topple MbS, but it has hit his image which will take a long time to be repaired if it ever does. The king is protecting him," one of the sources with ties to the royal court said.Qahtani himself once said he would never do anything without his boss' approval."Do you think I make decisions without guidance? I am an employee and a faithful executor of the orders of my lord the king and my lord the faithful crown prince," Qahtani tweeted last summer.Qahtani did not respond to questions from Reuters. His biography on Twitter changed in recent days from royal adviser to chairman of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, a role he had held before.Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the operation that led to Khashoggi's death and "certainly did not order a kidnapping or murder of anybody", a Saudi official said on Saturday. Officials in Riyadh could not be reached for further comment.As the crisis has grown over the past three weeks, Saudi Arabia has changed its tune on Khashoggi's fate, first denying his death, then saying he died during a brawl at the consulate, and now attributing the death to a chokehold.A senior Saudi official told Reuters that the killers had tried to cover up what happened, contending that the truth was only now emerging. The Turks reject that version of the story, saying they have audio recordings of what happened.The kingdom has survived other crises in the past year, including the fallout of the crown prince's short-lived kidnapping of Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri in 2017. Hariri, too, was verbally humiliated and beaten, according to eight Saudi, Arab and Western diplomatic sources. The man leading that interrogation: Saud al-Qahtani.France intervened to free Hariri, but Western capitals did not take Riyadh to task for detaining a head of government - and Prince Mohammed emerged emboldened, according to these Saudi sources.This time is different, with some Western capitals increasingly critical of the murder and the Saudi explanation.Germany has announced it will stop arms sales, while Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement asking for an "urgent … clarification of exactly what happened Oct 2."President Donald Trump has swung between saying he is unhappy with the Saudi investigation but also that he does not want to jeopardise U.S. arms sales to the country.Erdoğan: Evidence shows Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murderedSkype CallTo stem the fallout of the Khashoggi killing, the crown prince, commonly known by his initials MbS, allowed Qahtani to take the fall, according to one source close to the Saudi royal court.A second senior Saudi official said Qahtani had been detained following his sacking by royal decree, but he continued to tweet afterwards. The sources with links to the royal court said he was not believed to be under arrest.In the Khashoggi killing, Qahtani was present as he has been in other key moments of MbS's administration. This time, though, his presence was virtual.Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Saudi journalist often critical of Saudi Arabia and its leadership, walked into the Istanbul consulate at around 1 pm on Oct 2, to pick up some documents that would allow him to marry.Turkish security sources say he was immediately seized inside the consulate by 15 Saudi intelligence operatives who had flown in on two jets just hours before.According to one high-ranking Arab source with access to intelligence and links to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal court, Qahtani was beamed into a room of the Saudi consulate via Skype.He began to hurl insults at Khashoggi over the phone. According to the Arab and Turkish sources, Khashoggi answered Qahtani’s insults with his own. But he was no match for the squad, which included top security and intelligence operatives, some with direct links to the royal court.A Turkish intelligence source relayed that at one point Qahtani told his men to dispose of Khashoggi. "Bring me the head of the dog", the Turkish intelligence source says Qahtani instructed.It is not clear if Qahtani watched the entire proceedings, which the high-ranking Arab source described as a "bungled and botched operation".The Arab source and the Turkish intelligence source said the audio of the Skype call is now in the possession of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The sources say he is refusing to release it to the Americans.Erdogan said on Sunday he would release information about the Turkish investigation during a weekly speech on Tuesday. Three Turkish officials reached by Reuters declined to comment ahead of that speech.The senior Saudi official who laid out the official version of events – that Khashoggi had got into a fight – said he had not heard about Qahtani appearing via Skype, but that the Saudi investigation was ongoing.Lebanon’s Hariri hails Saudi effort on Khashoggi murderSaudi says finance minister meets US Treasury SecretaryQahtani's RiseQahtani, 40, has earned a reputation at home as both a violent enforcer of princely whims and as a strident nationalist. In blogs and on social media, some liberal Saudi journalists and activists dubbed him the Saudi Steve Bannon for his aggressive manipulation of the news media and behind-the-scenes strategizing.Qahtani wrote odes on Twitter to the royal family under the pen name Dari, which means predator in Arabic. Some of his opponents on social media call him Dalim, a figure in Arabic folklore who rose from being a lowly servant to much greater heights.According to his biography on his Twitter account, Qahtani studied law and made the rank of captain in the Saudi air force. After launching a blog, he caught the eye of Khaled al-Tuwaijri, the former head of the royal court, who hired him 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.Tuwaijri is under house arrest and could not be reached for comment.Qahtani rose to further prominence after latching onto Prince Mohammed, who was part of his father Salman's court as Riyadh governor, then crown prince and finally king in 2015Tasked with countering alleged Qatari influence on social media, Qahtani used Twitter to attack criticism of the kingdom in general and Prince Mohammed in particular. He also ran a WhatsApp group with local newspaper editors and prominent journalists, dictating the royal court’s line.When Riyadh led an economic boycott against Qatar in June 2017, Qahtani ramped up his attacks on the small Gulf state. Online, he urged Saudis to tweet the names of anyone showing sympathy with Qatar under the Arabic hashtag "The Black List".The high-ranking Arab official and Saudi sources with ties to the royal court said Qahtani was MbS's "bad cop" late last year when 200 people, including Saudi princes, ministers and business tycoons, were detained and put under house arrest at the Ritz Carlton in an anti-corruption sweep. Qahtani oversaw some of the interrogations, the Arab official said.A kidnappingThe extent of Qahtani’s power is perhaps best illustrated by the kidnapping of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri last year, several of the Saudi and Arab diplomatic sources said.The Saudis were incensed at the inability of Hariri, a Sunni Muslim and a Saudi client, to stand up to their regional rival Iran and Hezbollah, the Shi'ite paramilitary movement that acts as Tehran’s spearhead in the region. Hariri belonged to the same multi-party coalition government as Hezbollah.The Saudis were particularly dismayed that Hariri had failed to deliver a message to a top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to stop interfering in Lebanon and Yemen. Hariri claimed he had delivered the Saudi message, but an informer, planted by Qahtani in Hariri's circle, gave the Saudis the minutes of the meeting which showed that he had not done so.The Saudis lured Hariri to Riyadh for a meeting with MbS. Upon his arrival on Nov. 3, 2017, there was no line-up of Saudi princes or officials, as would typically greet a prime minister on an official visit. Hariri later received a call that the meeting with the crown prince would take place the next day at a royal compound.When Hariri arrived, he was ushered into a room where Qahtani was waiting for him with a security team, according to three Arab sources familiar with the incident. The security team beat Hariri; Qahtani cursed at him and then forced him to resign as prime minister in a statement that was broadcast by a Saudi-owned TV channel."He (Qahtani) told him you have no choice but to resign and read this statement," said one of the sources. "Qahtani oversaw the interrogation and ill-treatment of Hariri."Another source said it was the intervention of French President Emmanuel Macron that secured his release following an international outcry.Macron claimed credit in May for ending the crisis, saying an unscheduled stopover in Riyadh to convince MbS, followed by an invitation to Hariri to come to France, had been the catalyst to resolving it. Lebanese officials confirmed to Reuters that Macron's quick intervention secured Hariri's return.Saudi officials could not be reached for comment about the sequence of events or Qahtani's involvement. French officials declined to comment when asked about Qahtani's role.An offer to return homeAt least three friends of Khashoggi told Reuters that in the months after the journalist moved to Washington a year ago he received multiple phone calls from MbS’s right-hand man urging him to return to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi had balked, they said, fearing reprisals for his Washington Post columns and outspoken views.Qahtani had tried to reassure the former newspaper editor that he was still well respected and had offered the journalist a job as a consultant at the royal court, the friends said.Khashoggi said that while he found Qahtani gentle and polite during those conversations, he did not trust him, one close friend told Reuters. "Jamal told me afterwards, 'he thinks that I will go back so that he can throw me in jail?"The second senior Saudi official confirmed that Qahtani had spoken to Khashoggi about returning home. The ambush in Istanbul seems to have been another way to get him home.How much did the crown prince know about his trusted aide’s plan to abduct Khashoggi?Most of the 15 hit-man team identified by Turkish and Saudi authorities worked for the kingdom's security and intelligence services, military, government ministries, royal court security and air force. One of them, General Maher Mutreb, a senior intelligence officer, who is part of the security team of Prince Mohammed, appeared in photographs with him on official visits earlier this year to the United States and Europe.The high-ranking Arab official and the Turkish intelligence source said it was Mutreb's phone that was used to dial in Qahtani while Khashoggi was being interrogated.Reuters tried to contact members of 15-man team but their phones were either switched off, on voicemail or no longer in service.The Saudi official said Deputy Intelligence Chief General Ahmed al-Asiri put together the 15-man squad from the intelligence and security forces. Asiri was one of the five officials dismissed on Saturday.Another key figure was Dr. Salah al-Tubaigy, a forensic expert specialised in autopsies attached to the Saudi Ministry of Interior. His presence – equipped with a bone-saw Turkish sources say was used to dismember the journalist – is hard to explain in an operation Saudi officials now say was aimed at persuading Khashoggi to return home.It is hard to imagine that the crown prince could have not known about such a delicate operation, the Saudi sources with ties to the royal court say.The Saudi official who spoke on Saturday said an existing standing order provided authorisation to "negotiate" with dissidents to return home without requiring approval, but that the team involved with Khashoggi exceeded that authorisation.Another Saudi official close to the investigation said that Qahtani decided on his own to organise Khashoggi’s kidnapping and that he asked Asiri to get a team together, but that their plans had gone wrong.Qahtani's final act may be to serve his boss by assuming the responsibility for the crisis that has hit Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi's murder. The Saudi king has sacked Qahtani and ordered a restructuring of the general intelligence agency.To head it, he named MbS.
How the man behind Khashoggi murder ran the killing via Skype
After days of denying to know his whereabouts, Saudi Arabia last week claimed Khashoggi died during a fight inside the consulate.
Saudi King Salman sacked the deputy of the intelligence service and a top aide and ordered the arrest of 18 suspects over the case.
On the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance, 15 other Saudis, including several officials, arrived in Istanbul on two planes and visited the consulate while he was still inside, according to Turkish police sources. All of the identified individuals have since left Turkey.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister admitted on Sunday that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate but argued that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was “not aware" of it.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir claimed that it was a “rogue operation” by individuals who exceeded their responsibilities and later tried to cover things up.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday there were strong indications that Jamal Khashoggi's killing was planned and stated that attempts to blame it on intelligence operatives - Riyadh has suggested it was a rogue operation - "will not satisfy us."Erdoğan said that he does not doubt Saudi King Salman's sincerity, without elaborating. He also said the whereabouts of Khashoggi's body were still unknown and he demanded Saudi Arabia to reveal the identity of a "local cooperator" who purportedly took the body."The murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi was premeditated," Erdoğan said, adding Khashoggi’s killing was a “political murder.”In a speech to parliament, Erdoğan did not mention Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who some U.S. lawmakers suspect ordered the killing. But he said Turkey would not complete its investigation into Khashoggi's death until all questions were answered.Lebanon’s Hariri hails Saudi effort on Khashoggi murder"Intelligence and security institutions have evidence showing the murder was planned.... Pinning such a case on some security and intelligence members will not satisfy us or the international community," the president remarked.“Consulate cameras had been removed,” Erdoğan said, adding that “the team who committed the murder was previously notified” that Khashoggi would be at the consulate.He said evidence proved Khashoggi was "brutally murdered,” and called for the 18 suspects in the case to stand trial in Istanbul.“Everybody, from the instructor of the murder to the implementer, should answer to clear mankind's conscience,” he said.Indonesia expresses condolences to Khashoggi familyIn his speech, Erdoğan also said that the Saudi government formally admitted to the killing of Khashoggi 17 days after his murder."The Vienna convention would not allow such a'brutal murder to happen," Erdoğan stated."Diplomatic immunity, which is a part of the Vienna Convention, will be debated," he remarked.Erdoğan said a Saudi team of 15 entered the consulate the day of the killing, and that three men from the team went on an exploration trip to Belgrad forest in Istanbul and Yalova, a 90-kilometre (55 mile) drive south of Istanbul.Website of Saudi investment conference hackedKhashoggi vanished after entering the consulate on Oct. 2 to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.Erdoğan also extended his condolences to Khashoggi’s fiancée, his family and Saudi Arabia.Khashoggi was a U.S. resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post and a critic of the Saudi government, calling for reforms.After denying any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, 59, for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning said he had died in a fistfight at the consulate. An hour later, another Saudi official attributed the death to a chokehold, which a senior official reiterated.Turkey has not yet shared any information with any country on Khashoggi case: FMSaudi foreign minister pledges full probe into Khashoggi killingAK Party to continue cooperation with MHPTurkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party will not form an alliance with the nationalist party for the 2019 local elections, but cooperation between the two parties will continue, Erdoğan said on Tuesday, after the nationalists pulled out of the alliance earlier.The People's Alliance between AK Party and the MHP was formed this February ahead of the June presidential and parliamentary elections, and continued in some forms between the two parties."We see the People's Alliance as one of the most important gains of our country recently, and we want to carry it into future," Erdoğan stressed, but added that it would run independently from the MHP in the March 2019 local election.The president said they never did anything which will harm the spirit of the alliance, adding that his party will not be involved in any action.Turkey's opposition MHP no longer seeks alliance in upcoming local elections, Bahçeli says
Erdoğan: Evidence shows Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered
The website of an international Saudi investment conference hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been attacked by hackers.On the homepage of the 'Future Investment Initiative' website, hackers posted a fake image showing bin Salman holding a sword standing behind the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The conference, nicknamed Davos in the Desert and slated to run Oct. 23 - 25, is bin Salman's attempt to diversify the country's oil-based economy.His plans, however, have become disrupted amid global outcry about Khashoggi's killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.Screenshots of the hacked website show the message: "Saudi regime is one of the sources for #Terrorism_Financing in the world.""For the sake of security for children worldwide, we urge all countries to put sanctions on the Saudi regime,” the message stated."The regime, aligned with the United States, must be kept responsible for its barbaric and inhuman action, such as killing its own citizen Jamal Khashoggi and thousands of innocent people in Yemen. The medieval Saudi regime is one of the sources of #Terrorism_Financing in the world."Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, had gone missing since entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.After denying knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday said he was killed during a "brawl" inside the consulate.His body has not been recovered, nor has Saudi Arabia explained its shifting narrative on what transpired.SoftBank CEO cancels speaking engagement at Saudi conferenceSaudi stocks stumble amid Khashoggi killing falloutSaudi foreign minister pledges full probe into Khashoggi killingSaudis use charm, fierce lobbying to gain power
Website of Saudi investment conference hacked
Turkey will cooperate with any international investigation probing the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday, adding that Ankara had not yet shared any information with any country on the case.The minister stated that Turkey was ready to cooperate in a possible probe into the Khashoggi case at the United Nations, international courts or institutions.Saudi Arabia has been more open to cooperation on the case since the phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Saudi King Salman on Oct. 15, Çavuşoğlu said.Saudi foreign minister pledges full probe into Khashoggi killingThe minister said that it was "important" that Saudi Arabia acknowledged the killing of Khashoggi, even though it was a late statement.Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident and strong critic of Saudi’s Crown Prince Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident and strong critic of Saudi’s Crown Prince Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.World not satisfied with Saudi explanation on KhashoggiOn the day of his disappearance, 15 other Saudis, including several officials, arrived in Istanbul on two planes and visited the consulate while he was still inside, according to Turkish police sources. All of the identified individuals have since left Turkey.After denying knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts for two weeks, Saudi Arabia on Saturday said he was killed during a fight inside its Istanbul consulate.His body has not been recovered, nor has Saudi Arabia explained its shifting narrative on what transpired.Trump said Monday he is "not satisfied" with Saudi Arabia's explanation for Khashoggi's disappearance -- just days after calling it a "great first step".‘No reason’ for month delay in Khashoggi probe: TrumpTurkey-U.S. tiesThe foreign minister stated that steps will be taken in the coming days to lift U.S. sanctions on the justice and interior ministers of Turkey.Ankara’s ties with the U.S. were strained due to Washington’s support of the YPG terror group and their stance on the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), not because of the case of now freed American pastor Andrew Brunson, Çavuşoğlu said.The YPG is the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.The U.S. needs to cut support for the YPG and fully implement the Manbij roadmap, he added.The Manbij deal between Turkey and the U.S. focuses on the withdrawal of terrorist YPG/PKK forces from the city in Aleppo province, northern Syria to stabilize the region.“Turkey will not allow PKK/YPG to be part of Syrian constitutional committee,” Çavuşoğlu said, adding that Russia was aware that the YPG is a terrorist organization.Two PKK terrorists 'neutralized' in SE TurkeyFM calls Washington to take action against FETÖRegarding FETÖ, Çavuşoğlu called Washington to take action against the terror group, saying that it is “unacceptable” that the U.S. hosts a group that attempted a coup in Turkey. FETÖ terrorists are led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, who orchestrated Turkey's July 15 coup attempt and is the mastermind behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary. Since the failed coup, operations have been ongoing in the military, police and judiciary as well as in state institutions across the country to arrest suspects with alleged links to FETÖ.
Turkey has not yet shared any information with any country on Khashoggi case: FM
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday the kingdom was committed to a thorough and complete investigation to get to the truth behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.Saudi Arabia had sent a team to Turkey for a joint investigation and "uncovered evidence of a murder" in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, the minister told a news conference in Indonesia during a state visit."We expressed commitment ... to see to it that the investigation is thorough and complete and the truth is revealed and those responsible will be held to account," al-Jubeir said at the joint news conference with his Indonesian counterpart.Turkey says will enlighten 'nefarious murder' of Khashoggi"We will see to it ... that procedures and mechanisms are put in place to ensure that something like this can never happen again," he said.Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi government, disappeared after he entered the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to obtain documents for his marriage.Saudi Arabia initially denied knowledge of his fate before saying he had been killed in a fight in the consulate, an explanation that has drawn international scepticism.US in 'fact-finding phase' on Khashoggi: KushnerU.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler on Sunday, but said he was still not satisfied with what he had heard about the killing.Foreign Minister al-Jubeir said 18 people had been detained and six senior government officials had already been dismissed as a result of the investigation.On Monday, al-Jubeir met Indonesian President Joko Widodo who called for a "transparent and thorough" investigation of the killing. French foreign minister says killing of Saudi journalist grave crime
Saudi foreign minister pledges full probe into Khashoggi killing