ANSD : MBS vows Khashoggi killers will face justice

TUE 7 - 5 - 2024

Date: Oct 25, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

MBS vows Khashoggi killers will face justice

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vowed Wednesday that the killers of Jamal Khashoggi would be brought to justice, in his first public comments since the journalist’s murder sparked global condemnation.

Striking a defiant tone, Prince Mohammad told international investors at a major conference in Riyadh that the furor over Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul would not derail the kingdom’s reform drive.

His comments came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, the crown prince bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death.

“We will prove to the world that the two governments [Saudi and Turkish] are cooperating to punish any criminal, any culprit and at the end justice will prevail,” Prince Mohammad said to applause.

The world’s top oil exporter has come under increasing pressure over the death of Khashoggi, a columnist and one of the crown prince’s most prominent critics.

The crisis has strained Riyadh’s ties with the West and led dozens of Western politicians, top world bankers and company executives to boycott the conference that opened in Riyadh Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia first denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate, but a Saudi official eventually attributed his death on Oct. 2 to a botched attempt to return him to the kingdom.

Turkey has dismissed Saudi efforts to blame rogue operatives and urged the kingdom to search “top to bottom” for those responsible.

Prince Mohammad said Saudi Arabia and Turkey would work together “to reach results” on a joint investigation and described cooperation between the two countries as “special,” despite criticism from Ankara.

“The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis ... The incident is not justifiable,” the crown prince said on a discussion panel at the conference.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Prince Mohammad Wednesday and the two discussed the steps needed to bring to light all aspects of Khashoggi’s death, a presidential source said.

But in the bluntest sign yet of strained ties, one of Erdogan’s advisers wrote in a Turkish newspaper that Prince Mohammad had “blood on his hands.”

However, Prince Mohammad painted a different picture of relations with Turkey. “There are now those who are trying to take advantage of the painful situation to create a rift between the kingdom and Turkey,” he said.

“I want to send them a message that they cannot do this as long as there a king named Salman bin Abdul-Aziz and a crown prince named Mohammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, and a president in Turkey named Erdogan.”

In his comments to the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he wanted to believe Prince Mohammad when he said lower level officials were to blame for Khashoggi’s death. But the U.S. president suggested responsibility lay higher up. “Well, the prince is running things over there more so at this stage. He’s running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him,” Trump said.France said Wednesday that it could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia if its intelligence services establish that the kingdom was behind Khashoggi’s murder, although government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said there would be no hasty conclusions.

Turkish pro-government media reported Wednesday that Turkish intelligence had shared “all the evidence” from its probe with visiting CIA chief Gina Haspel. The evidence included video and audio recordings from the consulate and the consul’s residence, Sabah newspaper reported.

The location of Khashoggi’s corpse is still unknown. State media in Turkey said Wednesday that Saudi authorities had denied permission to Turkish police to search a well in the consulate’s garden.

The Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh was overshadowed by Khashoggi’s killing, with more than two dozen high-level participants withdrawing.

But Saudi Arabia showed it could still do business despite the furor, signing deals worth $50 billion at the conference Tuesday. The event was attended by hundreds of bankers and company executives.

Prince Mohammad, 33, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and architect of its reform drive, was upbeat on the economy, predicting growth of 2.5 percent this year.

The Saudi central bank governor sought to reassure foreign banks that withdrew from the conference that they would not be penalized and may apply for licenses to operate in the country, the Middle East’s largest economy.

So far there have been no mega announcements at the conference, in stark contrast to last year’s event that announced plans to build a $500 billion megacity.

During the panel, Prince Mohammad touted Saudi Arabia’s success in its efforts to transform its oil-dependent economy and make the deeply conservative kingdom a more tolerant society.

“All our projects are going ahead, reform is going ahead, our war on extremism is going ahead, our war on terrorism is going ahead ... our efforts won’t stop no matter how they try to constrain us,” he said.

Despite the boycott of the investment conference by big hitters, including in Wall Street, some senior international bankers including from HSBC and Japan’s biggest lender MUFG attended.

Lucid Motors chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson was also present and the U.S. company had a dedicated stand at the venue. In September, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund agreed to invest more than $1 billion in Lucid as part of Saudi efforts to diversify the oil-dependent economy.

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