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However, while Saudi Arabia spoiled its response to the murder – denying it for weeks, then calling it accidental and later acknowledging evidence of premeditation – Erdogan's posture changed.
As the critics went on, he obviously calculated that he could take a sufficiently serious blow to Prince Mohammed to paralyze him permanently. When other news in the West threatened to push Mr. Khashoggi out of the news, Erdogan's Turkish allies contacted Western journalists, looking for ways to keep him alive.
In Washington, where the mid-term elections have eclipsed the news of the case for two weeks, the Trump government is expected to announce economic sanctions against Saudi officials linked to the murder, according to current officials and old.
At the White House, as well as the State Department and the Treasury Department, officials discussed the imposition of sanctions under the Magnitsky law, which gives the executive power the power to punish foreign officials involved in violations of human rights. The announcement could arrive in a few days.
The administration has also become increasingly impatient with Saudi Arabia's handling of the war in Yemen. Last week, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on all parties to end the hostilities and take part in UN negotiations. But Saudi leaders did not immediately speak out to limit their air strikes, which angered some members of the Trump administration, according to former officials.
"The Saudis have intensified. they intensified the war, "said Bruce Riedel, expert in Saudi Arabia at the Brookings Institution. "It's a very public rebuke from the Saudi secretary of state and secretary of defense. The administration has not said anything about it. But their answer would be to reduce in-flight refueling. "
US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen sparked heated controversy, especially as the number of civilian casualties has increased – many children are among the casualties – and the country is suffering from severe injuries. a famine resulting from the war.
The administration has faced growing bipartisan criticism of US military support for the Saudi campaign. On Friday, Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, called for an end to the air-to-air refueling mission.
