Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will decide whether or not to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G20, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday.
"There is no obstacle to meet with Saudi Crown Prince. If he asks for, we can meet but it is up to our president," Çavuşoğlu said.
A G20 meeting in Buenos Aires at the end of the month will be attended by leaders from the United States, Turkey and European countries.
Continuing his break with the U.S. intelligence community, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed as "feelings" the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered a journalist killed last month at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul."They didn’t conclude," Trump told reporters at his Florida resort, taking a break for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. "I am sorry. No, they didn’t conclude. They did not come to a conclusion. They have feelings certain ways. They have not concluded, I don’t know if anyone’s going to be able to conclude the crown prince did it."Trump’s remarks echoed his controversial statement Tuesday saying of the conclusion bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, “maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”Khashoggi case: France slaps travel ban on 18 SaudisKhashoggi, a Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.After initially saying he had left the consulate alive, weeks later the Saudi administration admitted he was killed there, blaming a rogue group of Saudi operatives.Trump told reporters the Saudi crown prince denies the killing "vehemently."Bin Salman on 1st foreign tour since Khashoggi killing"His father denies it, the king [Salman], vehemently. The CIA doesn’t say they did it, they do point out certain things and in pointing out those things you can conclude that maybe he did or maybe he didn’t," said the president.In his Tuesday statement, Trump defended relations with Saudi Arabia despite the killing and said the U.S. may "never know all of the facts" and the country will continue its relations with Saudi Arabia in order to pursue American interests.Prominent senators including Republican Sen. Bob Corker and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, lashed out at Trump for his statement, saying they disagree with his decision not to punish Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing.CIA has recording of bin Salman giving order to ‘silence Khashoggi'Saudis banned Khashoggi for criticizing Trump: Report
Trump dismisses CIA Khashoggi conclusion as 'feelings'
Khashoggi murder
Donald Trump's comments about Jamal Khashoggi's killing show the U.S. president will turn a blind eye to the issue no matter what investigators uncover, Çavuşoğlu said.
On Tuesday, Trump vowed to remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia despite saying that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have known about the plan to murder Khashoggi last month.
Criticising Trump's stance for putting commercial deals with Riyadh ahead of justice, Çavuşoğlu said human life should take precedence.
"This statement that Trump made also means: 'No matter what happens, I will turn a blind eye.' This is not a correct approach. Not everything is money," Çavuşoğlu said.
He also said the United States had not informed Turkey of an audio recording regarding Khashoggi's killing, a day after a Turkish newspaper said that the CIA had signalled to Turkey it had a recording in which the crown prince ordered to "silence Khashoggi".
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the order for Khashoggi's killing came from the highest level of the Saudi government but probably not King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on Salman's heir and de facto ruler Prince Mohammed.
France on Thursday imposed a travel ban on 18 Saudi citizens over their suspected involvement in last month’s killing in Istanbul of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The travel restriction applies to the entire visa-free Schengen area of 26 European states, according to a French Foreign Ministry statement.The statement urged Saudi officials to help uncover the truth about the killing, saying: "Saudi Arabia is expected to provide a transparent, comprehensive, and detailed response on this issue."Bin Salman on 1st foreign tour since Khashoggi killingIf serious human rights violations are found to be involved, France and its EU partners are working on sanctions, it added.Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday said France could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia over the killing.“We are working very closely with Germany at this moment ... and we will decide over swiftly imposing several sanctions [on Saudi Arabia] based on what we know," Le Drian told Europe 1 Radio.CIA has recording of bin Salman giving order to ‘silence Khashoggi'On Monday, Germany also imposed a travel ban on 18 Saudi citizens suspected of involvement in the killing.The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA had concluded the Khashoggi’s murder was ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist working for The Washington Post, was killed shortly after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.After weeks of saying he had left the consulate alive, the Saudi administration later admitted he was killed there, blaming his death on a group of rogue Saudi operatives.Denmark suspends weapon export approvals to Saudi over Khashoggi, YemenSaudis banned Khashoggi for criticizing Trump: Report
Khashoggi case: France slaps travel ban on 18 Saudis
Trump’s remarks echoed his controversial statement Tuesday saying of the conclusion bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, “maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
Saudi Arabia is facing its worst political crisis in decades over the killing of Khashoggi at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul early last month, which has damaged the kingdom's standing and strained its ties with the West.
Russia on Thursday said that the U.S. has been training the militants at its At Tanf military base in the southeastern Syria.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow is concerned about the U.S. unwillingness to decide the problems, existing around "the occupied territory"."A large military base is deployed in the sovereign territory of a UN member state, in a strategically important area at the tri-border of Syria, Iraq and Jordan, near the route, connecting Baghdad and Damascus, which, according to numerous evidence, is preparing militants," she said.US placing observation posts in northern Syria: MattisAccording the datum published earlier by Anadolu Agency, some 7,700 square kilometers of the At Tanf region in the Syrian-Iraqi border are currently under U.S.-backed opposition control.In early September, the U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition began war games at At Tanf garrison in what it said are exercises aimed at honing "warfighting skills for counterterrorism operations".Despite the stated "counterterrorism" aim of the exercises, CNN reported they are actually a direct response to Russian military threats.Moscow reportedly sent a written note to the U.S. warning that it would carry out "precision strikes" on militants around the At Tanf area despite a roughly 55-kilometer (34-mile) de-confliction zone around the base.
Russia: US uses base in Syria for militant training
Manbij roadmap
The Turkish foreign minister said the Manbij roadmap agreed between the U.S. and Turkey must be completed by the end of the year, adding that the implementation of the roadmap east of the Euphrates would remove the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the cities there.
On Nov. 1, Turkish and U.S. troops began joint patrols in Manbij, northeast of the Aleppo Governorate in Syria, as part of an agreement that focuses on the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the city to stabilize the region.
The YPG is the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
The U.S. is placing observation posts along the Turkish border in northern Syria, Defense Chief James Mattis said Wednesday.Turkey has "legitimate" concerns about terror threats in Syria and the U.S. does not dismiss any of its concerns, he told reporters at the Pentagon.The concerns are emanating from the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, according to Mattis."Assad, with the help of Russia and Iran has, as you know, committed murder in his own country. And he's torn the country apart with his kind of governance, if you can even call it that. And Turkey has a lot of reasons for concerns, being the NATO country with a border right along Syria," Mattis said.Turkey constantly warns Europe of PYD/YPG threat: EnvoyIn order to combat concerns coming from Syria, the U.S will place posts along the border with Turkey and Syria, where it can warn Ankara of any potential threats."We are putting in OPs [observation posts] up in northern Syria, this is a change now. We are putting in observation posts in several locations up along the Syria border," Mattis said. "We want to be the people to call the Turks and warn them if we see something coming out of an area that we're operating in."The U.S. is consulting "closely" with the Turkish military and the State Department, said the defense chief."We are going to track any threat that we can spot going up into Turkey. That means we will be talking to Turkey's military across the border," added Mattis.The defense chief also said the observation posts were being placed to allow forces fighting in the Middle Euphrates Valley to focus on eliminating the "geographic caliphate," referring to Daesh terrorists.More than 300 people have lost their lives in Daesh terror attacks in Turkey, where the terror group targets civilians in suicide bomb, rocket and gun attacks.
US placing observation posts in northern Syria: Mattis
EU comments on rule of law 'out of line'
Turkey on Friday criticised the European Union's foreign policy chief for her comments on the rule of law in Turkey..
Çavuşoğlu criticised the comments from Federica Mogherini as "out of line" after she said she hoped that former head of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş would be released soon.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled this week that Turkey should swiftly process Demirtas' case, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
Çavuşoğlu described the ECHR ruling as motivated by politics, not the law, and said the case would be determined by Turkey's courts.
Turkey says the HDP has links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Demirtaş faces several other terrorism-related charges and a total of 142 years in prison if convicted.