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Turkey, too, has benefited, and the country’s Islamist President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has used the issue to help erode the reputation of Prince Mohammed, a rival who also sees himself as a leader for the wider Muslim world.
By allowing his security services to trickle out details of the Khashoggi case, Mr. Erdogan has kept the story alive for weeks, increasing the pressure on both Riyadh and Washington to find a solution. So far, neither has.
“So the Turks are now compelled to bring it all out,” said Thad Troy, a former C.I.A. official with experience in Turkey. “And the Turks will certainly make the most of it, dragging down M.B.S. as much as they can in the process.”
Also reveling in the besmirching of Prince Mohammed’s name are Iran and its allies across the Arab world who see the kingdom as an essential partner in American designs on the region, which they oppose.
But while the Qataris, Turks and other Islamists have all but cheered the battering of Prince Mohammed, the Iranians and their allies have largely watched quietly, taking a longer term strategic view, said Randa Slim, an analyst with the Middle East Institute. They would love nothing more than to see a full breakdown in the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
“The Iranians are thinking, if the U.S. drops him, he’ll move to Russia, he’ll move to China, he’ll move to our axis,” Ms. Slim said. “That has been their long-term dream: to separate Saudi Arabia from what they call the American-Zionist project.”
Iran’s allies, which include the Syrian government, some political forces in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, also see no reason to add to the recriminations against Prince Mohammed.
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