Turkish prosecutors have issued extradition requests for 18 people from Saudi Arabia suspected of participating in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month at the Istanbul consulate.
Specifics of who is being requested is unclear, but it is believed to include the 15-man kill team that Turkey identified as having arrived in the country for the killing and departed more or less immediately thereafter.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also requesting that the Saudis offer more transparency, and reveal who actually have the orders to kill Khashoggi. In particular, he wants to know who sent the kill team.
It is widely suspected this was orchestrated by the Saudi crown prince, though the Saudis are desperate to avoid such an admission. Erdogan has warned that Turkey may make more of the evidence that they’ve already gathered public if the Saudis don’t start offering more help in getting to the bottom of the matter.
I stand with Erdogan on this It is long past time to drag Saudi Arabia into the real world . Erdogan should take into consideration that he himself might need a little touching up along the same lines he want to impose on MBS .
I think we are all getting the wrong end of a stick. MbS is not Erdogan’s target, but those that issued the orders. While there is no evidence that US spooks are involved in a regime change attempt, iitvwas clear from the moment MbNayaf was ousted, that many circles in Washington want him back.
Trump tried through Pompeo to have a coordinated story about interrogation gone bad, and culprits attempting coverup. It would have worked but for Erdogan. He insisted that SOMEBODY ISSUED AN ORDER. The key is SOMEBODY, like conspirators aiming to blame MbS, and right before crucial Investment conference. For enemies of MbS there were many unpleasant things happening at the conference. One was the massive presence of both Russian and Chinese companies. The other thing is Saudi Arabia joining China-Russia Investment fund with 500 million dollars, fund that invests mostly in Shanghai Cooperation Organization member and partner states. The assistance to Pakistan to avoid too much of INF intrusion was Saudi life saving loan. But as we remember, Saudis have a large contract with Pakistan for contract soldiers. It was made clear that they were not for Yemen war, but for domestic duty. Why domestic? As it was noted before, Guard has a large contingent of British soldjers, and the concerm about the influence was there for a while. To make matters more complicated, Imran Khan announced in the conference that he will be an intermediary between Saudi Arabia and Iran in solving Yemen crisis. Saudis also helped Turkey in currency crisis following rift with US.
When head of Mecca was dispatched to Turkey — it simply means that a high level message is being exchanged to insure absolute confidentiality. And now, Saudis sent their top prosecutor to talk to Turkish law enforcement.
Apparently nothing is at it appears. Kashoggi’s fiancé was apparently jailed before for being linked to Gulen organization. Did she have a role beyond being a distressed fiancé?
So, who will prevail? Those that put all the sins of Nayaf era (sponsoring terrorism, Yemen) onto the new crown prince, or will the disobedient Prince prevail? A lots at stake here. Not just fir the MbS and the King, his father, but for the Kingdom and Middle East as a whole.
Correction: It wasn’t the Saudi’s that bailed out the Turks during its currency rift, it was Qatari money.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/15/turkish-lira-rallies-as-ankara-increases-tariffs-on-us-imports
But Turkey now wants to extort revenge money from MbS and perhaps get rid of him all together , afterall, the Muslim Brotherhood did not care for the reforms MbS pledged and more importantly the about-face they got from him when the Syrian regime change failed that left Turkey high and dry.
I understand your take on the
situation. I would like to throw in few other facts into the mixture. Nothing seems to be as it appears, so let us see how other things stack up. While it is known that Qatar jumped in to offset the impact of US financial jolt, there was other money in the mix. Saudi Arabia and Russia set up energy development fund over two years ago, and a dozen other
investments. A. Number of them ended up
as investments in Turkey. China is financing a major trade platform on all the laguages of SCO memers and associates — to facilitate trade both wholesale and retail. Turkey has the contract. Money is fungible — and much of it is floating among
Eurasian SCO. It is amazing that the organization draws so little attention, even though it is known that appart from rather traditional structures, the organization coordiates actuvities on every level of political, admin, judicial, financial, cultural, sports…
The point is, regardless of the formal ststus (permanent, observers, partners), the countries are intensively coordinating. It is a stunning truth that such a complete disinterest exists on the subject of vital importance. If we were to rely on mainstream media — all these countries do not know how to coordiate a state lunch, and sit in meeting sucking thumbs. Turkey may be only a parrtner but it has four chapters signed up with SCO. And partnering with Russia and Iran on Syria peace orocess gave Turkey a strong position in the organization. Its geography insures its importance in any Silk Road link to Europe, Middle East and Asia. From my observation, Saudi Arabia ever since the palace coup was positioning itself more and more within Eurasian space. Before election of Imran Khan in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia new ruler signed deal for Pakistani military presence in Riyadh. It is interesting that the new Prince found it necessary to have his own guard. It is no secret that Saudi National Guard is heavily staffed with British subjects and trainors. The just signed deal with Pakistan for 500 million, does seem to suggest more military. Keep in mind that US just last week cut off more military aid to Pakistant. Also, Imran Khan announced that he will mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia. More shocking news from the conference — MbS expressed prause for Qatar’s economy, and spoke positively about Turkey. Keep in mind that Turkey still has a base in Iraq, and in Qatar. The negotiations on openung base in Sudan under way. Turkey has been so far the only non-Arab Moslem country to reach out and assist other countries when under pressure from US or terrorists. It looks like Pakistan may be positioning itself for a Turkey -like role in the Persian Gulf area. And does anyone actually belueve that there is no strategic understanding between Pakistan and India? Or India and China? Both South Korea and Japan are intensifying economuc relations with China.
Our understanding of money moving around is weak. Unless we start tracking various agreements, and that requires patience.
As a result I cannot assume the rigid explanation for relationships among many states. Unless we dig for ourselves — the information we have is steitypical and simplistic. These are dangerous times, as Saudi attempts to reach out and diversify their relationships is a serious red flag for the zealotic wing of our foreign policy. We need realists not delusional zealots to be realistic about Saudi national interests and not try to isolate it and strangulate its economy. But I am afraid that the tunnel vision and obsession with Iran will result in Saudi Arabia either sucessfully bolting from our influence. Optimum would be workingbwith Saudi Arabia to secure our interests, but not pushing it into doing our battles. Such as Yenen.
And the assasination of Kadhoggi looks more and more like a plit against MbS. But public rebukes and humiliations will not work. Further threats will be useless. Only assasination could work — but given MbS popularity the result could be disasterous fir US. Options will be limited, and this is where Trump was probably right. Work the personal angle, somethjng respected in that world. And while not getting too excited over growing ties with Russia snd China — personal relations insured US interests.
Just one problem was insoluble — Iran. With no support for anti-Iran campaign in the region, Saudis needed a way out. And zealotism prevailed over realism.
And here we are.
This is not the time to have tunnel vision. And assume that there is no backchannel communication among many actors in the Middle East.
They are all intensively finding new ways to secure their economies and be secure. Somehow we forget this. If we are to rely on media and various analysts the world consists only of wise, Western world, and erratic, squabbling, impetuous, attention seeking, autocratic,corrupt, incompetent, and murderous thugs.
We can pretty much throw out such images. But not easy. They are ingrained in our cultural understanding of the world. We need realists more then ever.
To pay attention to the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.