Trump statement on Khashoggi murder comic: Turkey
Turkey has described US President Donald Trump’s latest remarks on the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi as “comic,” saying Washington is trying to turn a blind eye to the murder.
“Yesterday’s statement is a comic statement,” Numan Kurtulmus, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told state broadcaster TRT Haber on Wednesday.
In a lengthy statement issued on Tuesday, Trump expressed his support for Saudi Arabia amid international condemnations of the murder, which Ankara says has been ordered by the highest ranks of authorities in the kingdom.
Trump claimed there was “nothing definitive” linking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder despite an earlier CIA assessment, leaked by the Washington Post, stating that the heir to the Saudi throne had ordered the killing.
“Maybe he (bin Salman) did, maybe he didn't,” said Trump, adding, US intelligence agencies are still assessing all the information surrounding the case.
Kurtulmus further said, “It is not possible for an intelligence agency such as the CIA, which even knows the color of the fur on the cat walking around the Saudi consulate's garden ... to not know who gave this order.”
“This is not credible either for US public opinion or the world public opinion,” he added.
Khashoggi, a one-time royal insider who had been critical of the crown prince recently, was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October.
Following weeks of denial of any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance, the Riyadh regime eventually acknowledged the “premeditated” murder, but has sought to distance bin Salman from the assassination.
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