Turkey may seek financial aid from Saudis to stay silent on Khashoggi murder: US expert
Turkey might be pressuring Saudi Arabia over the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to receive economic concessions from Riyadh, according to an American author and radio host.
President Tayyip Erdogan urged Riyadh on Friday to reveal the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body as well as who ordered the murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Turkish prosecutors have also prepared an extradition request for 18 suspects from Saudi Arabia in the killing.
Khashoggi was a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler. He lived in a self-imposed exile in the United States, working as a columnist for the Washington Post.
Erdogan “probably has damning information” about the prince,” Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Friday.
“What he’s doing is, I believe, is pressuring him [Erdogan] and King Salman, for financial aid that Turkey desperately needs; its economy is in very serious trouble,” he added.
Erdogan “won’t spell all the beans” if the Saudis provide him with financial aid, Lendman speculated.
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor on Thursday said the killing of Khashoggi was premeditated, contradicting a previous official statement that it happened accidentally during a fight in the consulate.
Riyadh’s numerous shifting accounts of the killing have undermined the Saudi prince’s stance in the West.
Saudi officials initially denied having anything to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate, which he had visited to obtain paperwork for a planned marriage.
“Who gave this order?” Erdogan said in a speech to members of his AK Party in Ankara. “Who gave the order for 15 people to come to Turkey?” he said.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday that the killing of Khashoggi undermined Middle Eastern stability and that Washington would take additional measures against those responsible.
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