Saudi Envoy To US Denies Reports Of Directing Khashoggi To Visit Turkey - Statement

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2018) Saudi Ambassador to the United States Khalid bin Salman in a statement said he never told journalist Jamal Khashoggi to visit Turkey as the US government reportedly has claimed.

Earlier, the Washington Post reported that the CIA concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of Khashoggi based on analyzing phone intercepts. The report said that the Saudi envoy, at the direction of the crown prince, told Khashoggi to visit the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where the journalist was murdered in early October.

"I never talked to him [Khashoggi] by phone and certainly never suggested he go to Turkey for any reason," Salman, who is the crown prince's brother, said via Twitter on Friday.

"I ask the US government to release any information regarding this claim."

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, disappeared on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia's acknowledgment that the journalist had been killed in a fight inside the consulate came after two weeks of denials and growing pressure from Western allies to provide explanations.

On October 26, the Saudi prosecutor general acknowledged that the journalist's murder was premeditated. However, Riyadh maintains that the killing had nothing to do with the Saudi Royal family, describing it as a rogue operation.