ANKARA Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he will not meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during an upcoming summit of the G20 in Argentina, a Turkish media report says, nearly two months after dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Arab kingdoms consulate in Istanbul.
According to a report by A Haber, a nationwide television channel in Turkey, on Thursday, the Turkish leader does not intend to meet with the Saudi crown prince and the kingdoms de facto ruler during the 13th meeting of Group of Twenty, which is to be held in Buenos Aires from November 30 to December 1.
The report came a few hours after the state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Erdogans spokesman Ibrahim Kalin as saying that the meeting between the two could happen.
Khashoggi, 59, a one-time royal insider who had been critical of the crown prince recently, was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Following weeks of denial of any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance, the Saudi regime eventually acknowledged the premeditated murder, but has sought to distance the heir to the Saudi throne from the assassination.
A Saudi prosecutor later said Khashoggis body had been dismembered, removed from the diplomatic mission and handed to an unidentified local cooperator.
Furthermore, a recent report by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said that the spy agency had concluded that bin Salman had been behind the gruesome crime.
However, in a lengthy statement issued on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump, who had not endorsed the CIA assessment, 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.
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