TEHRAN (FNA)- A leading Arab newspaper said events in the past few days indicate that a deal is in the offing among the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to whitewash accusations against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after his order to murder prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
"Some signs of a political deal among Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the US in Khassogi's assassination case have appeared in the past three days," the Arabic-language al-Ahd wrote on Wednesday.
It questioned the reason for a delay in declaring the results of investigations into Khashoggi's case, and added, "Possibly they want to implement a plot like Lockerby case and say that three people abducted Khashoggi and then put them on trial to exonerate bin Salman."
This is while the Turkish sources and the US media have reported that bin Salman has directly issued the order to murder Khashoggi and Washington is in possession of a recorded voice of the Saudi crown prince in which he gives necessary orders for killing Khashoggi, al-Ahd wrote.
An official said on Tuesday that the Turkish police had found evidence inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which confirmed that Khashoggi was killed in the building.
The "high level official" spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity, but stated that police had found "certain evidence" that Khashoggi had died in the building. The official did not provide any more details about the evidence uncovered by police.
Also, a senior Turkish official told Reuters news agency that the investigators had gathered evidence, including soil sample.
“The Turkish crime scene investigators carried out searches in the consulate and took the things deemed necessary,” the unnamed official stated.
A team of Turkish police investigating journalist's disappearance left the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul on Tuesday. The investigators entered the consulate late on Monday. The forensic team spent nine hours looking for clues and DNA samples which could shed light on the mysterious vanishing of Khashoggi who Ankara believes was assassinated at the diplomatic mission.
Speculations that the Saudis might have destroyed crucial evidence at the site were fueled by footage showing two women and a man bringing cleaning gear through the front door of the Istanbul consulate. Coincidence or not, the “cleaners” entered the building on the day when a joint team of Turkish and Saudi experts were to search the mission.
The case has shocked the international community amid reports that the journalist has been murdered in an operation ordered by Riyadh.
US media suggested that Riyadh is preparing to announce that Khashoggi was killed after his interrogation at the consulate “went wrong". According to reports, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman approved an interrogation or rendition of Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, but the intelligence official was tragically incompetent as he eagerly sought to prove himself. He then tried to cover up the botched handling of the situation.
Khashoggi, known for his criticism of Saudi Arabia's policies, went missing on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a marriage document. Ankara has accused Riyadh of murdering the Khashoggi and smuggling his body out of the consulate in pieces. Saudi Arabia has denied the charges as “baseless", stressing that the journalist left the consulate shortly after he arrived, without providing any evidence.
Poster Comment:
Sounds like three rouge nations cooking up a coverup.